Ripples of Reality
by DreamonAlina
Summary: Juliet Gilbert has awoken from a coma that she's been in for an entire summer. It would have all been great, if the last two years of her memories hadn't been stripped from her mind. Full summary inside, and it's way better, I promise. Stefan/OC, for now. MIGHT change it later.
1. I Know What You Did Last Summer

**Disclaimer: **I don't own the Vampire Diaries! I just own my OC, Juilet Jordan Gilbert, and any other characters I make up along the way!

**Summary: **Juliet Gilbert has awoken from a coma that she's been in for an entire summer. It would have all been great, if the last two years of her memories hadn't been stripped from her mind. Now she's awake in a world where her and her sister apparently hate each other, she's supposedly in love with her sister's ex-boyfriend, she spent the last year hooking up with their British enemy, and to wrap it all up, an immortal being that had been tormenting them since the end of the past year is beginning to wreck havoc in Mystic Falls, bringing along with him a whole string of dangerous events.

What better place for Juliet to figure out who she was for the past two years than college?

**Author's Note:** My new thought on a Vampire Diaries story! Hope you enjoy it!

PS, as a little change, this is starting in Season 5. Don't worry, backstory and everything is eventually going to be revealed, bit by bit.

EDIT: I'm changing it so that Juliet is faced by a brunette Aimee Teegarden!

**Enjoy!**

* * *

I hear a lot of argument outside of my hospital room, as I have been hearing for the past couple of days since I woke up.

It was between one of my best friends, Matt Donovan, and my adoptive sister, Elena Gilbert. I don't hear it too well, since they're either told to keep their voices down because I'm trying to rest (but I don't see the point; I've been in a coma for the past three months, I don't _need_ any more resting) or they leave to another part of the hospital.

Anyways, the argument is always about me, and who gets to take me home. From Elena, I always hear, "She's my sister, I should be able to take care of her", and from Matt, I hear, "She's trusted _me_ to take care of her if it ever came to her health". I'm mostly on Matt's side, because if I made that decision before I clocked out of the world, I was still mentally coherent.

Elena and I were very close. We weren't exactly a year apart, so we're the same age and in the same year at school. We're also both adopted. Well, separately, I mean. My parents, Grayson and Miranda Gilbert, told me that I was adopted when I turned fifteen, and when I went snooping to try and find some information about my birth parents, I found out that Elena was adopted too. I never told me parents that I knew, and I never told Elena. It didn't matter to me. She was still my sister, and as a fifteen year old, that was all that I saw.

I mostly sleep, watch TV, or listen to music in the hospital. I haven't had many guests, just Elena, Matt, and our brother Jeremy, so I'm pretty much bored out of my mind. But according to Elena, there were quite a few people excited that I've finally woken up after my freak accident.

It was Jeremy who explained to me what happened. It was right around the beginning of summer (the night of my graduation, I'm told) when I left. I was supposedly going on a summer trip with my friend, but something happened, and a few days later, a local park ranger found me passed out on the ground, unresponsive, but somehow still breathing.

And then I was brought here, where I've been monitored for the past three months. I finally woke up a few days ago, and it's apparently a couple days before I was supposed to start college. Elena's trying to pull some strings so that I could stay in college, but Matt thinks I might need a few more weeks to rest up. They both eventually decided to leave it up to the doctors, and they said that as long as I was taking my medicine and not experiencing any dizziness or any other negative symptoms, I was okay to go.

The door to my room opens, and I look over to see Matt walking in. I smile when I see him, "Hey, Matty."

"Hey, Jules," He said as he sits down next to me.

"What's the verdict?" I ask.

"What do you mean?"

"Oh come on," I said. "I've been listening to you and Elena argue for the past couple of days. Who do I get to go home with?"

"Well, legally, you signed over all medical decisions that couldn't be made by you over to me, but Elena keeps insisting that because you're her sister, you should go home with her."

"Why did I do that?" I ask. I don't remember any of that.

Matt looks a bit confused until it hits him. "Right, you wouldn't remember. Your memory, remember?"

That's right. When I woke up and asked what day it was, it apparently _wasn't_ September 10, 2009. After some tests, they eventually came to the conclusion that I had no memory of the past two years, which was really bad, according to Jeremy, my information guy. A whole lot of stuff happened during the past two years, but apparently Jeremy couldn't tell me in a hospital, where there were, in his words, _humans._ Right, as if things not human existed. And that's what I believed.

Until Elena walked in and revealed she was a vampire.

It took a lot of explanation, but Elena finally filled me in on the fact that these types of supernatural beings existed, and I apparently found that out two years ago, so of course I didn't remember.

Anyways, back to what Matt was saying.

"Back to the point?" I said.

"Not surprisingly, the hospital went with what the patient wanted. So you get to come home with me," he said, a huge smile on his face.

I smile too. "That's good. When we get home you'll have to tell me what happened between me and Elena. And what's happened in the past two years."

There was a twinkle in Matt's eyes. "That's gonna be sooner than you think."

I straighten up, though it hurts a bit when I do. "Does that mean what I think it means?" I asked excitedly.

Matt smiles. "Yup! You get to go home tomorrow!"

I squealed, and Matt and I hugged. Tomorrow, I'd go back to the life I supposedly had.

Tomorrow, I'd be Juliet Jordan Gilbert again.

* * *

The next day, after Matt filled out like a billion forms, he and a nurse helped me outside, and I was in his car, ready to go home.

"I can't believe this," I said as I buckled my seatbelt. "A week ago, I was dead to the world. And now here I am, ready to go home. And start college tomorrow," I said the last part with a little groan.

"Hey, you're the one who wanted to go," Matt said as he began driving.

He's right, though. My doctor, Matt and I agreed that it'd be best for me to get back into a normal lifestyle, and what better place to start than college?

Matt and I pulled into his driveway, and he quickly got out to grab my bag. I carefully got out of the car, and I looked at the house, trying to remember the place. I sort of did, though a lot of the memories were from when we were younger.

"What do you want to do for dinner?" I asked Matt as he and I walked up the driveway into the house.

"Well, I've been meaning to talk to you about that," He said as he unlocked the front door, swinging it open.

There were suddenly a bunch of voices calling out, "Surprise!" And noise makers, as well as clapping.

I laughed as I took in the sight of my friends and family, some of them wearing party hats, standing in front of a banner that said, "Welcome Home."

"Welcome home, Julie!" My best friend, Caroline, said as she ran over and enveloped me into a hug.

"Thanks, Care!" I said as I squeezed her back. "Gentle," I reminded her, and she peeled herself off of me. "Still a bit sore."

"Right," Caroline said, stepping back a bit.

"What is all this?" I asked as I looked around the room. Elena, Jeremy, Caroline, Caroline's mother, Liz, and a raven haired man with blue eyes standing next to Elena were the ones here, though I had a feeling a few people were missing.

"No one in that blasted hospital would let us anywhere _near_ you," Caroline explained. "So I thought this would be a nice alternative. No way was I not going to see you before school started again." She grabbed a hold of my arm. "Now come _on!_ We have your favourite foods all lined up!"

Everyone stayed for a little while, and we all talked (they even managed to get me caught up on some stuff-like who the man with Elena was, whom I've learned is her boyfriend, Damon Salvatore) and we even danced a little. Then it was late, and Liz insisted that if we were going to get to Whitmore College on time tomorrow, we'd all need some sleep.

After a quick goodbye (and an especially awkward one from Elena, though I don't know why) everybody left. There was a question (actually there were quite a few) nagging at the back of my mind, so I decided to wait and ask Matt when everyone was gone.

And now that everyone is gone, I sat down with Matt in front of the TV in the living room to watch a bit before we went to bed. "Matt?"

"Yeah?" He asked.

"Can I ask you something?"

"Sure, Jules."

I gulped a little, afraid of the answer I'd get. "Where's my aunt Jenna?"

I felt Matt freeze beside me, but I continued on. "I mean, I'd expected her to be the one to get me out of the hospital, since she is my guardian. And I didn't see her today at the party. Where is she? On vacation?"

Matt turned the TV off slowly before turning to face me. "Juliet, there's a lot of stuff that happened in the past two years."

"And that includes?" I press, still afraid.

He gently took my hands in his. He looked me right in the eyes as he said, "Your aunt Jenna is dead. So is your uncle John."

Tears immediately filled my eyes at the news of my family members's death. "What?" I asked as I felt my face get wet. "How? When? Why?" I continued as Matt pulled me into a hug. I buried my face in his shoulder as he held me. "What happened?" I asked, my voice muffled.

He pulled back. "That's a really difficult answer, Jules. I don't want to be the one to tell you it."

"Why not?" I sniffed, and Matt handed me a tissue so I could blow my nose.

His blue eyes lit up as he said, "I'll be right back." He zoomed out of the room and up the stairs, and came back just as fast, holding a book in his hands. He holds it out in front of me, and I take it.

"What is it?" I ask.

"It's your diary," He said, sitting back down. "You write down everything in it. I'm sure the best person to tell you what's been going on in the past two years is you. You also have a whole bunch of other ones."

I look down at the book, then to Matt, then back down at the diary before I push it off of my lap. "I'm not ready."

"What?" He asked.

I shake my head. "I just woke up from a coma, Matt. I found out that I have no memories of the past two years, and then I find out that my aunt and uncle are dead. I just wanna start college tomorrow fresh. I'll get back to my past soon enough. But for now, what's in the past, is in the past."

Matt didn't look that okay with it, but slowly nodded. "Okay. That makes sense."

"But I do have something else to ask you," I said, and he nodded. "Why do Elena and I hate each other? Why do I live with you, and not with Elena and Jeremy in my own house?"

Matt winced. "That's a very long story."

"Is my entire life just a very long story?" I asked as I sunk back into the sofa.

Matt laughed as he sunk back with me. "Pretty much."

I smiled as I said, "You don't have to tell me why I don't live with Jer and Elena. I'm sure I've written it down, so I can just read that part later. But if Elena and I are to stay in the same dorm room, I want to know why the tension between us in a room is thick enough to be sliced with a katana."

Matt sighed as he said, "You're not gonna like the story."

I shrug. "It's my life," I said. "I'm not gonna like the story either way."

* * *

Matt filled me in on what happened between me and my sister, and I must say, if this was a TV show, it's ratings would probably be through the roof.

So apparently sometime last year Jeremy died (but he's still alive?) and Elena shut off her humanity because she couldn't deal with the emotions. And then she burned our house down, without me knowing until I came home and saw the only home I ever knew up in flames.

And Elena without her humanity on was apparently a real bitch, and she tried to kill me by stabbing me in the stomach with a tree branch. Yup. She actually did that.

I don't know what she was trying to accomplish by killing me (according to Matt it was because she felt like it) but Damon found me and healed me with his vampire blood (yeah, he's a vampire too. Apparently there's this whole history behind Damon and Elena and to be honest after I heard that Elena tried to kill me I really didn't care) and I didn't feel like I could trust Elena with my life again.

So I asked Matt to be the one to make medical decisions for me if I was were incapacitated.

And that's why whenever Elena and I are in the same room together she looks extremely guilty. Whatever, she's gonna have to learn to live with it if we're gonna be living in the same dorm room.

Anyways, it's the morning now, and after Matt filled me in on what happened last night, I suddenly remember that I was going to _college_, and that I was not packed whatsoever, so he helped me quickly pack up a bunch of things that pretty much took all night. I had a bit of sleep, and took some of my meds to speed up my healing process. Damon offered to let me drink some of his blood, but there was a line of so much creepiness I could take, and he had crossed it.

"You sure you have everything?" Matt asked as we walked up to the front door, me dragging a large suitcase behind me as Matt pulled two smaller ones with him.

"Yes, Matty-boy," I said with a smile. "I've double checked, I promise. And even if I did, you'd probably drive up to Whitmore to drop it off, wouldn't you?"

"Yeah, I would," he said. I open my arms wide for a hug, and Matt pulls me in close in an extreme bear hug.

"We'll talk every day?" He asked.

"Yup," I said, nodding my head against my shoulder. There's a honk outside, and Matt and I pull apart. "That's gotta be Caroline. Take care of yourself, Matt. I'll visit soon, I promise." With another hug I was out the door, ready to start afresh.

* * *

The campus of Whitmore College was alive with the sound of eager freshman students as Elena, Caroline, and I began grabbing our stuff to take to our dorm room which we'd be sharing with our other best friend, Bonnie Bennett. Who, according to Elena, has been on vacation all summer and was gonna be a couple days late to start the semester.

"You're dreaming about Stefan?" Caroline asked Elena incredously after my sister spilled the beans.

"They're not dreams," Elena clarified. "It's more of a feeling. Maybe I should call him."

"So he can hear how happy you are with Damon?" Caroline asked, in an annoyed tone. "Absolutely not." She turned her head towards me. "You gonna help me over here, Jules?"

"I _would_," I said, shaking my head. "If I knew who Stefan was."

Caroline and Elena both snap their heads towards me. "Uh, he's kind of your best friend," Caroline said.

"Well I must have met him in the two years that I have forgotten, because I don't remember him," I pointed out.

"Right," Elena said, shaking her head. "He's Damon's brother. I used to date Stefan, and you two are best friends."

"Okay," I said, with a nod of my head. "Well, if you used to date Stefan, I don't think it's a good idea to give him a call."

"What are you guys saying?" Elena asked. "I feel like there's something wrong with a friend of mine and I should just ignore it?"

"Elena, he'll call you when he's ready to," I say gently.

"And a whole summer isn't enough for him to be ready?" She asked.

"Well, you did dump him for his brother," I point out. "That's got to cut deep."

There's a bit of an awkward silence, and it looks like I went too far. "I'm sorry, Elena, I shouldn't have said it like that." Though it was totally what I meant. What girl dumps her boyfriend to date his brother? I mean, I've gone looking through my phone to see pictures with lots of people, including Elena, Jeremy, Jenna, Caroline, Bonnie, Matt, and even Damon. There was one person that I didn't recognize, a boy with bronzish hair and soft green eyes, who I had assumed to be Stefan. When it came to looks, I would have chosen Stefan over Damon. And from what I've heard from Caroline, Damon wasn't a good person. I have yet to actually heard a so called 'evil deed' (Caroline's words, not mine) of Damon's, so I'm not going to judge until I've heard anything.

"No, it's okay," Elena said, before she quickly changed the subject. "So I'm just supposed to _live_ with this nagging pit in my stomach?"

Caroline rolled her eyes with a sigh. "Okay, Elena, that _pit_ is called guilt. You feel terrible because you broke Stefan's heart and that nagging feeling is your brain telling you that you have made a horrible-yet completely reversible-mistake."

"Nice try," Elena said as she spun around to stand in front of the two of us. "Besides, Stefan and I left things in a good place."

_You call not talking for an entire summer after you dumped him and picked his older brother over him a good place?_ I had wanted to ask, but restrained myself. Things between Elena and I were already rough from the whole 'her trying to kill me' thing, and I just wanted things to get back to the way they used to.

"It doesn't mean that he hasn't been thinking about you _shacking_ up with his brother all summer long," Caroline said.

"Oh, seriously, Caroline?" I said, covering my ear with one hand and balancing the clothing basket in the other. "I did not need to hear that." I actually felt a bit offended that Elena was more concerned about herself and her ovaries than about her sister dead to the world in a hospital. I tried not to focus on it too much, though.

"Neither did I," Liz said as she walked by us. "Mom ears. I'm still here."

Elena just made a 'my bad' face, and Caroline just laughed as we turned around to look at the campus.

"We're in college," Elena stated.

Caroline grinned as she said, "We _actually _made it. All three of us." She gestured to me. "And Sleepy over here was a miracle."

I just shook my head at her with a laugh. After a bit of silence, we all turned around to find our college dorm room, a bit of a skip in our steps.

* * *

"You brought a Panini Press?" Elena asked Caroline, holding the contraption up.

All Caroline said was, "Small appliances by the fridge."

Elena just blinked before she passed it over to me, and I took it over to put next to the fridge.

"That's the last one," Liz announced as she brought another box in. "All right. Now give me a hug before I change my mind and bring you home with me," Liz told Caroline as she went over and wrapped her daughter into a hug. "You can call as much as you want."

Caroline just laughed at her mother. "Mom!" She said. "We'll be fine." They pulled apart and Liz went over to hug Elena. She exchanged glances with me as she said, "This is where your dad fell in love with medicine, you know," She said as she pulled away from Elena and wrapped me into a hug, which I gratefully returned. "He would be really proud to see the both of you here."

"Thanks, Liz," I said as we pulled apart. She stroked my face before cupping it. "Take care of yourself, okay? I don't want to get another call saying that you're passed out somewhere in a forest."

I laugh, pulling Liz's hands from my face. "I promise, Liz. I won't pass out in forests. I might pick a cave next time."

She just laughed as she gave her daughter a happy look. Caroline burst into laughter as she said, "Go! Before I change my mind and make you stay."

"I'm going! I'm going!" Liz said as she backed over to the door. "I love you." She began to shut the door behind her as she said, "Bye, girls."

"So, roomies," Elena bubbled. "I think we should drink to something."

"I couldn't agree more-" Caroline took a dramatic pause as she flipped the top of her suitcase open. "Roomie."

"I am on board for this," I threw in.

She reached into her bag and produced two little bags. A closer inspection revealed it to be bags filled with blood. I almost got scared, until I remembered that Elena and Caroline (who had informed me on the way up to Whitmore) were vampires.

It's not that easy to digest, you know.

"Wait, what am I gonna drink?" I ask. "You two are the vampires."

"Ugh, I forgot that we're living with a human," Caroline groaned as she walked over to the mini fridge. She pulled out a can of diet Coke, and handed it to me. "This okay?"

"It's fine," I said as I popped it open. I felt a little sick to my stomach when I saw the blood swish in Caroline and Elena's hands.

"To the next chapter of our lives," Caroline announced, and they tapped their blood bags against each other. I just slightly raised my can, and I was about to drink from it when there was a knock at the door, and faster than lightning, the two vampires tossed their blood bags back into the suitcase and turned around just in time for a girl our age to let herself into the room, holding a basket of her stuff.

"Hey!" She said excitedly.

"Um, who are you?" Caroline asked.

"I'm Megan," She introduced. "Your roommate."

* * *

"So your current boyfriend Damien-" Megan started, but Elena cut her off with her correction of how to really say Damon's name.

"-Is your ex's brother?" Megan continued.

"Stefan," Elena clarified.

"And you and Stefan are friends by three months ago he left without saying goodbye?" Megan inquired.

"I thought the exact same thing," I mumbled to her under my breath. We were all taking a small breaking from moving, and I guess since we're supposed to live with each other, we ought to get to know each other a bit.

"You think I should call him?" Elena asked for maybe the fifty millionth time that day. If she asked again, I am fully prepared to strangle her.

"No way," Megan answered as Caroline threw in, "Absolutely not!"

Elena just brushed it off with a shameful smile as Megan changed the subject. "Do you have a boyfriend, Caroline?"

"I do," My friend answered gleefully. "His name is Tyler. He had to miss moving day, but he'll be here for the first day of classes."

"Assuming he registers," Elena starts. "And picks a dorm. And buys books." Jeez, way to play the bitchy card, little sis.

Megan quickly changed the subject again by looking over at me. "And you, Juliet? Do you have a boyfriend?"

Not unless I had a boyfriend in the two years I had forgotten. Besides, I feel like I've re-met anybody I was supposed to. And I haven't had a chance to read my diaries yet, either. "Um, no, actually. It's kinda hard to get yourself a boyfriend when you've been in a coma all summer long."

Megan gave a tiny gasp. "Oh my God! Are you okay?"

I shrug a bit. "I'm here, aren't I?"

"So did you forget anything? Maybe you did have a boyfriend, you just can't remember," Megan said.

Well, then. Not really the confidence booster I needed.

"Speaking of minding one's own business," Caroline said, spinning around on her heel to face the three of us. "Let's talk roommate ground rules." She crossed her arms as she began. "Privacy is very important to me."

"Same here," Megan agreed.

"I have low blood sugar," Caroline kept going. "My diet's finicky, so keep your paws off of my stuff."

"We'll split up the shelves," Megan proposed.

"And if I suddenly get up to leave or disappear for a while, _don't_ follow me," Caroline asserted.

"Okay," Megan agreed lightly. "Sounds good."

"Good," Elena said. "Then we agree on everything."

"Excuse me ladies," A deep voice that had to be male said. We all ceased conversation and turned around to see what the guy wanted. "Party at Whitmore house tonight," He declared, handing a flyer to Caroline.

I had to stop myself from rolling my eyes at the dude's obviousness. He was trying not to check Caroline out, but he was really struggling with it.

Elena looked over at the boy, then to Caroline. "We'll be there," She told him. Caroline looked at Elena, a confused look on her face.

"I hope so," He said, his gaze directly to Caroline. She just watched, unfazed as he left.

Elena put her arm around Caroline. "I love college," She said with a laugh.

* * *

I had a few errands to run, and when I came back to my dorm, I saw Caroline raiding the drawers where Megan was keeping her stuff. She turned around to check out who it was, but just sighed when she saw it was me, and went back to raiding. "Did you notice that Megan's juicer takes up all the small appliance space?" She informed us, clearly very annoyed. She opened another drawer as I went over to grab a bottle of water to take my medicine with. "She has an entire drawer dedicated to organic linen."

"I thought the whole 'privacy' thing was _your _idea," I reminded, popping the pill into my mouth and taking a swig of the water to wash it down.

Caroline angrily shut the drawer and turned around. "Maybe if she didn't take such long showers, I wouldn't have time to go through her stuff." She turned back around and kept going through Megan's stuff. "I mean, how can you be okay with a fourth roommate?"

"Because we're trying to be functional," Elena argued. "And being functional means we need friends."

"We have friends," Caroline said.

"I think she means _human_ friends, Care," I clarified.

Caroline spun on her heel. "But we also need personal space," She pointed out. "I mean, what if we suddenly get a craving and I want to eat her?"

Elena just shook her head with a smile as Caroline continued. "Or our blood bags go bad because we can't store them in the mini fridge." She went on to open the mini fridge. She pulled out one of Megan's water bottles. "And what the hell is protein water?"

Elena and I both shrugged as our blonde best friend screwed the cap off. "Well, maybe if I drank it all, she'll want to move out."

Caroline tilted the bottle to her lips and began to drink as Elena got off of her bed to protest, but the next thing we knew, Caroline was on the ground, coughing her brains out.

I jumped off of my bed and fell to her side. "Caroline, are you okay?"

"Vervain," She wheezed out.

"Vervain?" I repeated. "What's vervain?" I ask, looking to my information people.

Elena was about to open her mouth to explain when the bathroom door burst open, revealing Megan, who had a towel wrapped around her body. "What's going on?" She asked. She grabbed another towel from a rack outside of the bathroom an walked towards Caroline. "Are you okay?"

Elena and I helped her up as Elena answered for her. "Yeah, she's fine."

"What happened?" Megan asked as she dropped the towel to the ground to soak up the water.

"Water, just went down the wrong pipe," Caroline cleverly lied. "I'm okay, really." She handed Megan her water bottle back. "I shouldn't have touched your stuff. I'm really sorry."

"It's fine," Megan dismissed. "It just sounded like someone was dying out here." Which Caroline pretty much was.

"I'm glad you're okay!" Megan piped, before turning around to go back to her shower.

As soon as the door was shut Caroline furiously whispered, "She knows who we are! She drinks vervain water!"

"Nobody has told me what vervain is yet," I point out.

"Right," Elena said, turning to me a bit. "It's poison for vampires." She turned back to Caroline. "That doesn't mean she knows about us."

"Seriously?" Caroline protested. "We share a bathroom with this girl! What if she's a hunter, and tries to stake us in the shower? Or, she steals our daylight rings while we're asleep, and we burst into flames when the sun comes up?"

Elena grabbed Caroline's shoulders. "Do you think that if she was a hunter, we'd be dead by now?"

"I think we should lock her up," Caroline went on, ignoring Elena. "You know, let the vervain get out of her system. And then we compel her to forget about us."

"Caroline, I'm not kidnapping our roommate!" Elena protested. "The best way to convince her that we're normal is to _act_ normal. Do...normal, human..._freshman-y_ stuff."

"You guys are vampires," I said. "You can't get that normal."

"You're not exactly helping, Jules," Elena said with a groan.

"Okay, if we were to act like normal freshman," Caroline interrupted us. "What would we do?"

A small smile inches its way to Elena's face, and I knew what she was thinking.

* * *

There was excited chatter and blasting music throughout the neighbourhood of Whitmore College, but I'm sure it's not an abnormal thing. I mean, this was a _college._ I've been to a frat party (against Elena's wishes, but I had simply stated that she wasn't the boss of me and after the party she was the one helping me nurse my hangover) and loud music wasn't uncommon.

"I am going to get so drunk tonight!" I said giddily. It's been an entire summer without one drop of alcohol, and I was also single and ready to mingle.

"Just go easy, okay?" Elena asked. "I know I technically don't have the right anymore, but you just woke up from a coma, I don't want you to do anything to hurt yourself."

There was a bit of an awkward silence until it was broken by a voice.

"Hey, I remember you," the voice said, and we all turned around to see the guy from earlier, that invited us to the party.

"Hey," Elena said, her eyes flickering over to Caroline. "Flyer guy."

"Jesse," He corrected. "But Flyer Guy works too."

"I'm Elena," My sister started. "This is my sister, Juliet, and our friend, Caroline."

Caroline was avoiding Jesse's gaze, and I gave her a subtle nudge. She had to at least be polite. And hey, if she wasn't going to go after the guy, I will. He's really good looking, and seems funny.

"Hi," Caroline quickly gave, before turning around to walk way. Elena and I just gave Jesse apologetic looks before going after her.

"Caroline, wait up," I said, and finally fell into stride with her.

"Could you be nice to the guy?" Elena asked her.

"I'm with Tyler," Caroline simply said.

"What, and that automatically means that you can't just _talk_ with other guys? Be polite to other guys?" I asked.

"And, no offense, Care," Elena started, and I had to stop myself from rolling my eyes. When people start sentences with "no offense", then the person is going to get offended. "But are you? I mean, he hasn't called-"

"From the mountains of Appalachia?" Caroline finished sarcastically.

"I'm just saying, I don't want you to get your hopes up thinking that he's coming, when he hasn't been showing much interest," Elena pointed out.

"Did you tell Damon that you've been having dreams about Stefan?" Caroline retorted, and I couldn't help the snort that escaped me.

"What? What was that?" Elena asked, turning around to face me.

"I'm sorry Elena, but Caroline's got a point," I said. "Communication is very important in a relationship, and if you are having dreams about Stefan, then you should tell Damon." Before Elena could freak on me, I turned to Caroline. "And you should call Tyler to see what his plans are. That type of communication is just as important, Caroline."

"Yeah, like you're the best judge of communication," Elena muttered, about to walk forward.

Excuse me? She's not getting away with that that easily. "I'm sorry? When have I not communicated in a relationship?"

"You and Klaus sure communicated very well," Elena said.

"Wait, who's Klaus?" Did I actually have a boyfriend?

"Elena, not tonight," Caroline insisted. "Let's just party and have fun tonight."

"You know what?" I said. "You guys can party without me." I turned around to leave.

"Jules, wait," Caroline started.

"No," I said, not even bothering to turn around. "I just don't feel very well. I'm gonna go get some rest."

"I'm sorry, Juliet," Elena said. "I shouldn't have said that. I'm sorry."

"Elena," I said, spinning on my heel. "It's not you. It's just been a long week. I was in a coma a week ago. I just want to get some rest. I'm not in the partying mood."

I turned around, and kept walking. Who was Klaus? And why is Elena being all pissy? Vampires don't get their time of the month, do they?

I didn't feel like going back to the dorm just yet, so I just pulled out my cell phone and took a walk. I being going through my contacts, to see if I could recognize any names. I could recognize all of them, except for Stefan's and Damon's.

According to Matt, the best person to find out what's been going on is myself, and when I packed for college, I decided to pack all my diaries since September 10, 2009. They were saved from the fire because I apparently I ran inside and managed to save them (nearly getting myself killed in the process) but what can I say? Memories are important to me. And now I'm glad that I saved them.

I had just made it back to our dorm when two figures began rushing towards me. "Juliet!" I heard.

I turned around to see Elena and Caroline. "What?"

"Oh, thank God you're okay!" Caroline said as both girls pulled me into a hug.

"Why would I not be okay?" I asked as I pulled back.

They both shared uneasy looks as Elena finally said, "Megan's dead."

* * *

After they both calmed me down because I freaked out so bad, Elena explained that they were on the phone with Megan when she suddenly fell from a tree, dead.

They were about to lead me into the room because I was suddenly shaky on my feet, but I could feel Elena freeze in her tracks. She was staring at the door, so I followed her gaze to see that the door to our dorm was cracked open.

Elena went in first, and quickly took a survey of the room. "Someone's been in here."

"Well no shit, Sherlock," I said as I followed behind her. "We all have keys, and we all made sure the door was shut when we left."

"That's not the point!" She protested as Caroline went over to the desk and turned a lamp on.

"Megan's tablet is gone," Caroline revealed.

"Along with her so-called suicide note," Elena added.

"Wait, I thought you guys said a vampire did this," I said.

"We did. And it was," Caroline said. "But the school is covering it up as a suicide?"

"Why?" I asked as Elena took Megan's phone from Caroline to look in.

"This just doesn't make any sense!" Caroline groaned. "First, the roommate we're _not_ supposed to have _might_ know about vampires, and then happens to be killed by a vampire, and now the school is covering it up. "I mean, seriously? Who _is_ this girl?"

I just shrugged as I watched Elena's eyes bug out of her head. "Whatever's going on, it's not just about our roommate," She said.

"Then what is it about?" I ask.

"Us," She revealed, and I scrunch my eyebrows in confusion.

"What do you mean?" I question, and Elena turns the phone around for me too look at. "That's Megan," She said.

"With your dad," Caroline finished.

I rolled my eyes. "I can remember that much, guys."

* * *

In the end, we all just decided to get some rest, because classes start the next day. It's still kinda early though, and I want a few answers before I go to bed, so I grabbed the diary that dates back to September, 2009, and my booklight. Elena opted to take a shower before bed, and Caroline sat in her bed.

I had headphones stuck in my ears as I read, but I could hear subtle sobs coming from my right, where Caroline's bed was.

I pull my head phones out and turn my head to see Caroline on the phone, most likely listening to a message. I strained to hear, and I faintly heard our friend, Tyler Lockwood's voice. I guess sometime during the last two years the two had begun dating.

But why was Caroline crying? He wouldn't dump her over the phone. If he did, I will personally go to the Appalachians and kick his sorry ass.

"Are you okay, Caroline?" I ask her.

"Yeah, I'm fine," She lied with a sniffle.

I give her a look. "Caroline?"

"Yeah?"

"Do I have to kick Tyler's ass?"

She laughed through her tears. "I'm really glad you're here, Jules. I'm really glad you're awake. I've missed you."

I smile. "I missed you too."

Caroline suddenly went a bit seriously. "The whole thing with Elena bringing up Klaus was uncalled for. She knows that. But you know her. When she gets pissed, she doesn't like to hold back."

"I know," I said. "I just hope I'll figure out who Klaus is soon," I say, holding up my diary. "I've been slowly finding out details of my life."

"Well," Caroline said. "Good luck. There's a lot of stuff that's happened in our lives. I hope you're ready to find out. And If you have any questions, just ask me."

"I will," I say, settling back into bed with the book. "Night, Care."

"Goodnight, Jules," She replied, turning over in her bed. "See you in the morning." And soon enough I could hear her soft snores.

I waited until Elena was done her shower and in her own bed until I reopened my diary. It dated back to August, when my parents died, but now I've finally made it to September 10, 2009.

The day my life supposedly changed forever.

Here goes nothing.

* * *

**TBC...**

**How do you like it?**

**I promise, all her history will be revealed with time. A lot of it is actually going to start in the next episode, True Lies, which I will hopefully get up soon.**

**Let me know how you like it!**

**REVIEW! FOLLOW! FAVOURITE! THANKS! STAY TUNED!**


	2. True Lies

**Disclaimer: **I don't own the Vampire Diaries! I just own my OC, Juilet Jordan Gilbert, and any other characters I make up along the way!

**Author's Note: **We get to start with a flashback!

Oh, and I'll also be probably making a polyvore account for this story, just FYI.

And _italics_ will always be either a flashback, diary, or a dream sequence. And occasionally thought processes, but you'll be able to figure out which is which.

* * *

**Enjoy!**

_ I fumbled with all the books in my hands. Great. First day of school and I was already drowning._

_ I was walking down the hall, trying not to bump into people. I let my guard down for one second, and in that one second, I collided with someone, falling to the ground, taking all my books with me._

_ "Ouch," I groaned, shaking my hands. _

_ "I'm so sorry," The person who I bumped into said. The voice was distinctly male._

_ "It's okay," I replied, not making eye contact. I started picking up my books. "I wasn't watching where I was going."_

_ "Here, let me help you," He said, and he dropped to the ground next to me._

_ "Really, it's fine," I said, reaching for my history book at the same time as him, and I finally looked up at him. I found myself staring into the most gorgeous pair of green eyes I had ever seen in my life._

_ I immediately blushed, and shook my head. "I wasn't watching where I was going."_

_ The boy smiled back at me. "It's my fault. I should have seen a girl behind the stack of books." _

_ I let out a small laugh as we both stood up. "You sure do have a lot of books, though," He commented. "What class do you have next?"_

_ "Um, history, with Tanner," I mumbled._

_ "What a coincidence," He said. "So do I." He grabbed half of my stack, ignoring my protests. "Well, as long as we're going the same way, I might as well help. I mean, we can finally see your face."_

_ I laughed as we began walking towards the history room. "So you've basically become my knight in shining armour and I don't even know your name."_

_ "Well, you've become my damsel in distress and I don't know your name," He retorted with a smirk. "I'm Stefan."_

_ "Well Stefan," I said. "I'm Juliet. But call me Julie or Jules. People don't really call me Juliet. And to be honest, I don't really like it when they do."_

_ "Why not? Juliet is a wonderful name," Stefan pointed out. "Like Juliet Capulet."_

_ "Oh yeah, Juliet Capulet," I said sarcastically. "That's who I should aspire to be."_

_ "What's with the sarcasm?" He asked as we came to a stop outside of Tanner's classroom._

_ "Well, Juliet Capulet was a dumb thirteen year old girl who killed herself because her boyfriend of three days who was also a dumb seventeen year old boy who killed _himself_ because he thought that Juliet was dead," I answered._

_ "But don't you find that romantic?" Stefan pressed. "I thought girls were supposed to fawn over that romance stuff."_

_ "Not if it's stupidity," I correct with a laugh._

_ "So you're saying," He started, taking a tiny step forward, that I was very aware about. "That you don't think it's romantic at all that someone could love you so much that they wouldn't even want to be parted from you in death?"_

_ I'm trying not to hyperventilate, my gaze locked with his. My hands were getting all clammy as the bell for class rung, effectively saving my life. "I'll have to get back to you on that."_

_ Stefan nods. "Make sure that you do. I'm interested in the answer." He put the rest of my books on top of my stack, and made a big show of bowing. "After you, Miss. Capulet."_

_ I couldn't help a laugh. "Why thank you, Mr. Montague," I said, and as I walked in, I threw over my shoulder, "But you know, Capulet's not my last name. It's Gilbert."_

_ "And Montague is not _my_ last name," Stefan informed me. "It's Salvatore."_

_ "Well," I said, sinking into my seat, grateful that I was finally sitting down and my legs were finally regaining the feeling in them after Stefan's stare. "Nice to meet you, Mr. Stefan Salvatore."_

_ "And it's nice to meet _you_, Miss. Juliet Gilbert."_

* * *

I awoke with a start, propelling myself forward with a deep gasp. I took a couple breaths to try and steady myself, and eventually, it worked.

"Are you okay?" Caroline asked me from her dresser. "Did you have a nightmare?"

"Not really," I answered, running a hand through my bed raggled hair. "It wasn't a nightmare."

"You're probably just freaking yourself out," Caroline supplied. "I mean, you have been reading your diaries for the past couple of days. That's a lot of information for a person to take in in such a short time."

Caroline's right. I've been eating, breathing, and sleeping my diaries. Especially the sleeping part.

I've been having these weird dreams. I mean, my diary isn't so vivid, and it actually looked like I lost interest at some point, because it took sudden time jumps sometimes. But I have been learning a lot, and it's certainly been influencing my dreams.

Like this one, for example.

I dreamt about the first time I met Stefan.

And it was so vivid. From the way his hair was styled to the colour of his shirt, and from the way my hair fell into my eyes to the pattern I had painted on my nails that day.

And when I say I've been learning a lot, I do mean a _lot._ I've learnt about Stefan and Damon's history (which I have no idea why I recorded), this chick named Katherine who is apparently Elena's doppelganger and a vampire (or an ex-vampire, as Elena had kindly told me when I asked about Katherine) who basically tried to screw over our lives by handing Elena over to this evil British vampire-werewolf hybrid named Klaus.

Whom I have not been particularly shy with, apparently. But I'd rather go into that story later in favour of the one that's more heavily on my mind.

I was in love with Stefan Salvatore.

Well, at least before. According to myself, I had fallen for Stefan when I first met him (can you blame me, though?) but when I found out that Elena liked him, I backed off (I still do not know why). But then with each deed that Stefan had done to keep me and my family safe, I had fallen for him more. And it all came to a head when Stefan left with Klaus to get a cure for a werewolf bite from Klaus. And I'll admit, I had kinda re-fallen for him through reading my diaries.

Unfortunately, I am not a person to deal with feelings. I hate them. Well, I hate showing them. So when I started getting these feelings for Stefan, I didn't know what to do, especially since he was happy with Elena. So I did the only thing that I thought could have been done at the time.

I slept with the enemy.

But can you blame me? I have a couple pictures of this so called Klaus on my phone, and hot damn. I'm kinda proud of myself for landing myself with someone like that.

But Klaus and I had a genuine friendship, because he was apparently in love with Caroline, and I loved to tease him about it. And at the beginning of the summer, he relocated to New Orleans, but not without inviting me first. But I had declined in favour of staying in Mystic Falls and trying to sort my life out. I should give him a call sometime, just see how he's doing. And let him know that I was in a coma.

"Megan's memorial outside is growing by the minute," Elena told me, breaking me out of my thoughts.

"Ugh. College kids are so dramatic. She was on campus for like, a day. She couldn't have made that many friends," Caroline said as I put my diary (I was now on October, 2011) into my side table drawer and pushed my blanket off of me to get ready for school. I stretched, wincing at the ache in my back and neck muscles as I did so. That hasn't been the first time I've fallen asleep reading one of my diaries. I seriously need a massage or something.

"Caroline, she's _dead_," Elena reminded our blonde friend. "You can stop competing with her."

Caroline just sighed in response. "Sorry, I'm in a mood," She said, throwing something into a cardboard box.

"Have you talked to Tyler?" Elena asked.

"He's deferring from enrolling _and_ deferring from returning my phone calls," She informed us. "So _I'm_ deferring from having sex with him ever again."

"Way to go, Caroline," I supported. "Fight the power."

We both laughed as we high fived. It was then that I took the opportunity to look inside the box that Caroline had been going through. "What are you even _doing_?"

"Snooping through Megan's stuff," She answered, and I just shrugged as I made my way over to the bathroom.

I just had to brush my teeth (I took a shower last night, so I didn't see the point in taking one this morning), so I left the door open so I could listen to Elena and Caroline talk.

"Any explanation why our vervain-laced-" There was a pause from Elena. "-vampire slaughtered roommate had a picture of our dad on her phone?"

"No," Caroline answered.

I quickly finished, and was walking out when I saw Elena handing Caroline a brown folder.

"What is that?" I asked as I went over to my drawers to pick something out for the day.

"I went to the hospital this morning. Megan's death certificate," She explained. "It says she died of a suicide. No mention of the gaping vampire bite on her neck. So, whoever signed off on her death was a part of the cover up. Just like the Founder's Council back home."

Ha! Founder's Council! I actually knew this one. It was basically a society of the town's founding families that knew about the existence of vampires and worked to keep the town safe from them. But that kind of backfired, don't you think?

"Doctor Wesley Maxfield," Caroline read from the certificate.

"A.K.A, our Applied Microbiology professor," Elena supplied. Before Caroline or I could ask what she was talking about, she said, "I switched all of our classes around so that we-"

"Applied what-what?" Caroline interrupted. "Uh, Elena, we're all supposed to be taking Intro to Communication! What happened to getting drunk and making bad decisions about boys?" Caroline was kinda hysterical now. "What happened to our fun freshman year at college-I am supposed to be a drama major!"

"You're not going to be an _anything_ major if we get exposed as vampires!" Elena declared, a little too loudly. Elena took a deep breath in, calming herself down. "We are still going to have our fun year, Caroline. But we have to protect ourselves. The way Damon kept his secret in Mystic Falls is because he infiltrated the Founder's Council. So bust out those alleged acting skills and let's get on it, okay?"

Caroline still looked a little pissed, but Elena's infectious smile was just what she needed to relieve it, and she smiled back.

I, however, didn't smile. "Hey! I'm not a vampire, why do I have to take Applied Microbiology? I was supposed to be taking Intro to Sociology!"

Elena sighed. "Come on, Jules! Just do this for us for now. I promise if you don't like it, you can drop it. Now, if you could please go get ready."

I just rolled my eyes as I grabbed a towel and marched into the bathroom. "Stupid vampires..."

* * *

I had tried to take a nice, long shower, but Elena the party pooper made me cut it short. I quickly left the bathroom, and rolled myself into a pair of denim shorts, a light pink tank top, and black converse. And then, the three Musketeers (aka Caroline, Elena, and I) were out the door and headed to Applied Microbiology. Blech.

We walked into the classroom, and we were about to make our way up to sit at the back, when a voice paused us in our tracks. "Hey, blow-off girl."

Caroline, Elena, and I turned our heads to see Jesse, the guy from the party. "Aren't you a freshman?" He asked, looking specifically at Caroline. The said blonde widened her eyes. "How are you in this class?"

"What?" She laughed, trying not to freak out. Caroline looked around the room for help. "I love...Applied...Micro..biology."

Elena laughed slightly, to back her up, but I laughed because her awkwardness was funny. I just shook my head as I continued up the steps, and took a seat.

Caroline and Elena talked with Jesse for a bit more, before they came up and joined me. "Jules? We're going to a party tonight."

"Another one?" I asked. "You know, I'm getting a little tired from socializing so much." I start fanning myself dramatic. "A queen needs her rest, you know."

Elena just gave me a playful nudge, before looking over to Caroline, who was giving her a look of annoyance. "Oh come on," She started. "You're the one who wanted to make bad decisions about boys. He's cute, he's interested, and most importantly, unlike Tyler, he's here."

I was kind of getting annoyed with Elena's attitude towards Tyler. Sure, Tyler Lockwood never has been the best guy, but as long as they made each other happy, it shouldn't matter, should it?

That's what I think, though. My diary, however, says otherwise, but I think that's mostly because I used to ship Klaus and Caroline when I had my memories. Huh. Klaus and Caroline. There's a name in there somewhere.

Before I could stick up for Caroline and her decisions, the door opened, and the professor walked in.

"Morning, everyone," He said. "I'm Doctor Maxfield. First name is Wes, but call me _Doctor_ Maxfield," _Doctor_ Maxfield said as he put his bag down. He was kinda young, not that much older than what Damon looks like. He was also...kinda sorta cute, for a teacher. I exchanged a quick glance with Elena, and I could tell she was thinking the same thing. I sunk down in my chair to get more comfortable to listen to Doctor Good-Looking-_ahem_, I meant Doctor Maxfield's, lecture. "One day, when you're out of med school, you'll understand." He leaned on his counter. "So. You're all going to this, bonfire, tonight, right? Well, here's a quick history lesson for you-Whitmore was founded as a hospital during the Civil War. Deadliest war in American history-over six hundred thousand casualties." Would it be completely and morally wrong that I was a bit turned on? Just by the way, he was talking, though, not what he was talking about.

"Disease was so prevalent that-once a week-they had to gather all the dead, rotting bodies, put them in a pile...and light them on fire," He finished with a smile, and I wasn't so turned on anymore. "So tonight," He started, in an annoyed tone of voice. "When you're getting drunk and partying, stop for a second, close your eyes, and imagine the rancid smell of a hundred rotting corpses."

"Creep-_y_," Caroline whispered to me, putting emphasis on the 'y' as Wes kept talking.

"So what?" I whisper back, half listening to what he was talking about. Some sort of bacteria that I did not know the answer to, but I was curious, so I looked it up on my phone when he wasn't looking. "His hotness totally overshadows the creepiness."

Caroline snorted quietly as Elena gently whispered, "She's right."

"Isn't that right, chatty girls in the back?" Doctor Good-Looking snapped, and the three of us snapped our heads to face him. Well, that was mean. He is so not good looking to me anymore. Okay, that was a lie.

"And what is that bacteria?" He went on to ask.

"Uh..it's uh..." Elena stammered. "I don't know," She finally admitted defeat.

Cadaverine. That's what my search said.

"Maybe because you're freshman who shouldn't be in this class," He said, and I rolled my eyes at him. "How do I know? I'm observanr. A skill you'll learn in Bio 101." He pointed to the door. "Down the hall."

Elena, Caroline, and I just quietly picked our stuff up. I could feel about fifty pairs of eyes burning a hole in my back as I walked down the steps. But nobody humiliates Juliet Jordan Gilbert and/or her friends and gets away with it.

As I neared the door, I detoured towards Wes, stopping close to his ear as I whispered, "I believe the answer you are looking for is cadaverine." I leaned even closer as my voice turned into a soft, seductive, voice, "_Doctor_, Maxfield." I trailed my eyes down his form, before leaning back in. "Those new pants?" I quickly pulled back with a wink, and victory coursed through my body as I saw Wes flush pink. I began walking towards the door again, and just shrugged when I saw Elena and Caroline gaping at me from outside of the hall, where they were waiting for me.

Again, no one gets away with it.

"I can't believe you just said that to the Microbiology teacher," Caroline said as we started walking out of the building.

I shrugged again. "He was acting like a douche. Grant it, he's a hot douche, so at least he's got something to remember me by," I finish with a small grin. What I said and did to Wes (yes, I am calling him Wes in clear defiance) made me start thinking about someone else I have apparently constantly flirted-and done other stuff-with.

I spun around on my heel. "I don't have class for another hour and a half. I'm gonna go grab a bite to eat."

"Oh, I'll come with you," Caroline offers, but I shake my head.

"Nah. I'm gonna get some reading done," I tell her, patting my book bag that held my diary, laptop, and a notebook with a couple of pens. Actually, because I didn't want her listening in on my conversation.

"Okay," She chirped, and I quickly turned back around and ran to find the nearest Starbucks on campus.

It's 9:00 AM, and I haven't had a coffee yet.

As soon as I was sure I was far away enough, I fished my phone out of my pocket, scrolled through the contacts name, and clicked the name I wanted. I listened to a couple rings before it picked up. "Hello?" A British voice said.

"Klaus?" I say. "It's Julie. Do you have some time to talk?"

* * *

"And it's like," I ranted to Klaus as I took a bite out of my brownie half an hour later. "I'm not a vampire. So why should I have had to take that stupid class, to spy on some stupid teacher, that I don't even have to care about?"

"Because your sister is a vampire, love," Klaus replied in an exasperated voice.

"And I care, because?"

"Wow," He purred, and the way he said it kind of made my toes curl. Another point for me, for landing someone British. "I have to say, I'm liking this post-coma Juliet a lot more than pre-coma Juliet."

"Calm down, Klaus," I say with a grin as I polish off the brownie. "You're in New Orleans, and I'm in Mystic Falls-well, sort of. No way would I be there and back in time for my next class."

"Which is why you should have just come to New Orleans with me," He replied. "You wouldn't have had your accident, and you and I could have sex any time we wanted."

I actually laughed. "Nice try, Klaus. You'll just have to get off with that little werewolf of yours," I said. "How is, uh-Hayley, was her name?"

"To be honest, love, I care about Hayley just as much as you do."

"Which is, not at all?"

"Correct," He said. "Anyways, enough about me. How are things with you? Being out of a three month coma must be pretty exciting."

"If we're being honest here, sweetie," I said, using the nickname I apparently had for Klaus. "Not really. My first day of college and I've blown my reputation."

"What reputation?"

"Exactly!" I explained. "How am I supposed to build a reputation when teachers are dragging on me?"

"I don't know," He answered. "But let's not talk about school. How are _you_ faring?"

"As well as any post-coma patient should, I guess," I tell him. "I'm taking the meds, reading the books. It's just kind of hard, without most of my memories."

"How are you dealing with that, anyways?"

"Well, Matt supplied some things, Elena and Caroline others, but most of what I'm getting is from my diary," I said, patting the book in front of me. I smoothed my hand over the cover.

"Anything about me in there?" He asked in a flirty tone.

"_Maybe_," I answered in a ridiculous school girl tone. "Just that you have a nice butt and make cute noises when I kiss your neck."

"I am guilty of both those qualities."

I laughed one final time, before saying, "All right, I should let you get back to your New Orleans business. I'm sure you're very busy with it."

"Yes, I am, as a matter of fact," Klaus said. "I had to put aside three meetings to fit your phone call in."

"Bye, Klaus," I tell him.

"Goodbye, Juliet."

As I hang up, I remembered something that I read in my diary, right around when Klaus and I first met. He's the only one that calls me Juliet. Well, him and his older brother, Elijah, whom I have yet to meet. But if he's related to Klaus, he's going to be attractive.

I open up the diary, but it's not the most recent one. It's my oldest one, filled with lots of stuff about Stefan, when I was first interested in him. There's one interaction with us that is by far my favourite. It doesn't end all that favourably, though. It's when it was the night of the comet...

* * *

_ I turned around to see Stefan wandering around with an empty candle. Deciding to be of help, I marched right over. "Well," I started, and he turned his head at my voice. "If it isn't Romeo Montague. Oh, my bad. Stefan Salvatore."_

_ Stefan smirked. "You are very funny, Juliet Capulet-oh wait, Juliet Gilbert," He corrected himself._

_ "Would you look at that? He's got a sense of humour," I said. Even though Elena was interested in him, she wasn't making a move. That gives me permission to try and flirt, doesn't it?_

_ "I do have some qualities, you know," He said._

_ I notice his unlit candle, and I gesture to it. "Do you mind if I-?"_

_ Stefan shook his head. "No, not at all. Go ahead."_

_ I smile as I bent my candle to light his, my eyes fixating on the flames so that I'm not tempted to look into his eyes, where I'd most likely get lost forever._

_ I finally look back up at him, and lock gazes with him. His eyes search my face for a second before he speaks up, "I'm sorry about Damon, earlier. He told me you stopped by."_

_ "Yeah, I did. You borrowed my history book, remember? I just stopped by to see if you were home because I needed it," I said._

_ "Sorry if he was a hassle to you," He said._

_ I thought back to my encounter with Damon earlier. "He wasn't that much, actually. A little-" I paused, trying to think of the word. "Forward, for lack of better word, but he wasn't that much of a hassle."_

_ Stefan laughed at my words. "That's good." _

_ There was a tiny break of silence until I decided to break it. "You didn't mention that you had a brother. I mean, you did mention that you had a sibling that day at the Grill, but I thought that you didn't talk to your sibling. Or sibling_s_, if you have more than one."_

_ "Yeah. I guess you can tell why I don't generally talk about my siblings," He said._

_ I nod. "Elena mentioned what went down with you, her, and Damon when she went over to talk to you."_

_ "Really?" He said, suddenly perking up with interest. "What did she say?"_

_ Uh-oh. This was it. I could either ruin Stefan and Elena, or I could make it happen, right then. Elena's been in the worst funk since our parents died. And Stefan sort of brought her out of it. But what about me? I deserve not to be in a funk. Well, I'm not in an as serious one, but still!_

_ But Elena has been taking our parents death harder than me, and Stefan was definitely contributing to it._

_ With a sigh, I ended up saying, "All good things. Well, about you. Damon, not so much."_

_ Stefan lets out a sigh of relief. I couldn't help but smile at the cute noise, but frown a bit when I saw Stefan's gaze. I followed it, and my heart fell a little when I saw that he was staring at Elena. Deciding that Stefan and Elena both deserve to be happy, I leaned over and said, "She really likes you."_

_ Stefan's head snaps over to me. "What are you talking about?"_

_ "She's been through a lot, especially in the past year," I kept going, since he knew fully well what I was talking about. "You make her happy, and she makes you happy, and..." I look back over at my younger sister, happily laughing with our friends. "...if you let her go now, you're gonna regret it for the rest of your life. Maybe not today. Maybe, not tomorrow. But the next day, _that's _when you'll regret it," I actually managed to joke._

_ Stefan looks over at me, and smiles. "Think I've got a shot, Capulet?"_

_ "If you get there and light her candle before Matt does, then definitely, Montague," I replied with a smile._

_ He gives me a sideways hug. "Thanks, Jules. I'll catch you later."_

_ "Catch you later, Romeo," I said softly._

_ I watched as he walked over to my sister. Elena deserve some happiness in her life, especially ever since the accident. As I watched Stefan light Elena's candle and talked to her, my smile dropped. Why do I suddenly feel jealous at the sight of them? Shaking my head at the question, I looked down at my hands, and then left to find my friends._

* * *

"What are you reading?" A voice says, bringing me out of my reading.

I turn my head, and gasp to see that I've come face to face with the one and only Stefan Salvatore.

"Stefan!" I squeaked in a high pitched voice, flipping my book shut as fast as possible. I quickly grabbed it, shoving it into my bag before standing up, and trying to position myself casually, as if I wasn't reading about him crushing my soul. "What are you doing here?"

Stefan Salvatore looked the same as he did in my dream, memory, thing. Same green eyes, same hair, same everything. Except for his clothes, of course.

"What, I can't visit one of my best friends who has just woken up from a coma at her college?" He asked.

"You could have visited said friend when she was in the hospital. And shown up at her welcome home party," I added.

"I'm sorry I couldn't make that," He apologized.

I groaned, before shaking my head. "You know I can't stay mad at that face," I finally say, before stepping on my tipy toes to wrap my arms around his neck in a hug.

I haven't seen Stefan in three months, and forgot over two years of memories with the guy, but I felt weird when I hugged him. I always thought when I saw Stefan again, I'd be all happy, warm, fluffy, like my diary had described. When I hugged him here, I felt a bit...cold. I don't know why, though, that was just the thing.

I pulled back from him, putting my arms behind my back. My heart skipped a beat when I saw a sinister look on Stefan's face, but when I blinked, it was just Stefan again. What the hell was that? "But seriously, what are you doing here? Can't possibly be just to check up on me."

"You're right," He said playfully. "I'm here to see Elena."

And even though I feared those words, they broke my heart. I lowered my eyes slightly. "Right. And you were probably hoping that I've seen here around."

Stefan nods. "Have you?"

I shake my head. "Nope. Sorry. Last I saw her was about half an hour ago. I'm sure if you call her she'll answer. She's got to be around here somewhere."

He smiles, the same smile in my dream. "Thanks, Juliet."

I nod, a strong smile on my face. "I'll see you around, Montague?" I tried. According to my diary, Stefan and I always mention Romeo and Juliet in greeting or goodbye. So I decided to try and get back into the steady of things. Stefan lightly taps my arm. "See you around." And with that, he's gone. As I watch him walk away, something odd hits me.

He didn't call me Capulet. Or Juliet.

Which meant...nothing. Right?

* * *

My second (but first official, since I bailed on the last party) party at Whitmore had been effectively ruined when I remembered what Doctor Maxfield said about the dead bodies. I decided to grab a beer to calm my nerves. But when I tried to, the stupid nozzle thing or whatever it's called wasn't working. I desperately shook it to try and get it to work.

"WORK, YOU STUPID NOZZLE THING!" I cried out. Stupidly, I was on the verge of tears. _Over a nozzle._

Well, I guess not just the nozzle. The memories of Stefan, Stefan coming back, the sense that he didn't even care about me. I mean, my diary _and_ Caroline have both said that we were best friends. I even set aside my feelings for him so that he and my sister could have a chance to be happy for pete's sake! And there he was, just thinking about Elena. As my diary had stated, if everyone in that god forsaken town had taken their heads out of Elena's ass, then maybe we would have gotten a lot more done. But nope. Elena was a goddess.

And I was the mule.

A hand grabbed mine, and I jumped when it did, but then I looked over and sighed when I saw Jesse. "Thank God, it's you, Flyer Guy. I thought I was going to have to kick someone's ass, and I'm not in the mood for ass kicking tonight."

Jesse laughed at my lame attempt at a joke. "I got that for you."

I wiped at the dumb frustration tears that had formed, which alarmed Jesse. "Whoa. Are you okay?"

"Just, guy drama," I answered, grabbing the cup from his hand. The probably only plus side of living in Mystic Falls?

You learned how to drink by age sixteen.

Which is why I downed the drink in one go. It has been a while since I've drunken any alcohol, since Matt wouldn't let me touch any of it at my welcome home party (saying that it wasn't good for my health and yadda yadda yadda), so when I drank it, it burned on the way down. It sure as hell made me feel better right after, though.

"Wow," He said as I handed the cup back to him to refill. "Guy drama, getting kicked out of class...today is _really_ not your day, is it?"

"Oh you have no _idea_, Flyer Guy," I said as he handed me the cup back. This time when I drank it, it went down better, so I felt a lot better. "What's his deal, anyways?"

"Doctor Dickfield?"

I laugh. "Nice one. I like that. Though, I think the only highlight of my day was getting Doctor Dickfield to picture me naked."

Jesse burst into laughter. "Yeah, what did you say to him?"

I smiled innocently. "I just told him what he wanted to know. The answer." I pause. "In a way that might have implied that I wanted to sleep with him."

He laughed again. "You've got a sense of humour. I like that." He puckered his lips, a concentrated look on his face. "Tell you what. Help me grab some firewood, and I will tell you everything you need to know."

I thought about it for a second, then nodded. "Sure." I started following Jesse, then joked, "But we _are_ talking about how to get into Maxfield's pants, right?"

He just nudged me, and we started making our way to the woodshed. As we were walking, I saw Elena at the corner of my eye heading to the keg area. I wonder if Stefan ended up finding her. Whatever, I don't care.

"I had Doctor Maxfield for a few classes last year," Jesse started. "He's a _jerk_, but he's brilliant, so I'll give him a pass."

"Brilliantly creepy," I couldn't help but comment, and Jesse snorted. "It's true! That story about the dead bodies made me want to drop to the ground and join him just to erase the story from my mind. It was disgusting!"

"That's Doctor Maxfield for you," Jesse told me. He paused, and I turned around from where I was gathering wood to look at what it was. And he was looking at me oddly.

I almost asked "what", but he spoke before I could. "There's...a rumour that he's part of this secret society on campus."

"Secret society of what? People plotting to ruin the lives and mentality of young adults, or the kind of society that sits around drinking bourbon-whiskey all day? Maybe even the ones that want to help the environment?"

"I have no idea," Jesse revealed. "All I know is that, a few times a week, they supposedly meet at Whitmore House." I nodded, processing the information, when Jesse pointed a piece of firewood in my direction. "But you didn't hear that from me," He warned, and I made the 'lock-my-lips-and-throw-away-the-key' gesture, and gave him a smile. It fell as Jesse suddenly dropped to the ground, and Damon was standing right in front of me.

"What the hell?" I asked him, dropping down next to Jesse to see if he was okay.

"Have you seen Elena?" He sounded desperate. I rack my brain.

"I wasn't exactly looking for her, but last I saw was at the kegs. And that was less than ten minutes ago? I'm sure she's still there," I answered him as Caroline came running in.

"Seriously?" She called out in a high pitched voice. "That's Jesse! I kind of liked him!"

"I knew it!" I declared, throwing an accusatory finger in her direction. I looked back to where Damon was, but he was gone.

I was suddenly hit with a very painful headache, and I couldn't help the scream that crawled up my throat.

"Julie? Julie! Are you okay?" I faintly heard Caroline, but I ignored her in favour of the images that were flashing through my mind. Elena and Damon making out (not an image I really wanted to see), Elena dousing Damon with Megan's protein water a.k.a her vervain water, and then there was a bunch of screaming but I couldn't decipher the words. It was all over in the span of thirty seconds.

Ignoring Caroline's concerns, I rose steadily to my feet and went barreling out the door to try and save Damon from whatever Elena was doing to him.

Unless I was about to walk right into the middle of some sort of vampire foreplay.

Then I didn't want to be there.

Too late to figure out which one now.

* * *

I busted into our dorm room where the images had taken place, and saw Damon all tied up with burn marks on his chest that were already fading, and Elena sitting in the chair opposite him, a poker stuck in her leg.

I had been heaving because of how fast I was running, but I managed to get out the words, "Vampire foreplay, torture, or none of the above?"

Elena and Damon just exchanged looks before Elena said, "None of the above."

I breathed out a sigh of relief. "That's all I need to know," I said, before shutting the door behind me and walking down the dorm hall before crashing down to the ground.

But I wasn't allowed to relax, no way. Because as soon as I sank to the ground, I was hit with the same pain from earlier, though ten times worse. I saw a few flashes, and tried my best to decipher what they meant.

The flashes were all of Stefan. He looked like he was in trouble. He was dressed nothing like how I saw him today. Also, it looked dark where he was. Dark, and filled with water.

And then the images switched again, and the Stefan from the dark place was suddenly standing in front of me. We were both standing above an empty safe, shocked looks on our faces. I was about to ask him what was wrong, but the flashes of that stopped, and the flashes of Stefan in the dark place was back.

And's that's when I realized he was underwater. Scared. Alone. In pain. _Helpless._

I was violently brought out of the state, taking short breathes. I looked down at my sweaty skin, pain still prickling all over my body. I slowly stood up, my hands scrunching my hair.

What was wrong with Stefan? Where is he? Why is he in so much pain?

And who the hell is here, if it's not Stefan?

Tears began streaming down my face, part relief from no more pain, and partly because I didn't know where Stefan was.

I was stumbling as I walked, but I managed to fall on top of my dorm. I reached for the doorknob, feeling the dark pull of unconsciousness pulling at me.

Just as I turned it, I lost all feeling in my legs, so I fell forward as the door finally opened.

I heard my name, but I wasn't listening as I was finally pulled into unconsciousness, muttering, "Stefan...safe...water..._not safe..._"

* * *

For as long as I could tell, I was unconscious, and not dreaming, which I gladly welcomed with open arms.

Until that blackness turned see-through, and I saw a figure at the other end. And it was Stefan.

He was unconscious, most likely temporarily dead. Poor thing must have been drowning over and over and over again.

I tried running towards him, but my foot got caught in something, and I struggled to get it out, but it wouldn't work. That's when I was suddenly surrounded by four walls. I didn't know what it was, but I could still sort of see Stefan, so I started banging at the wall, shouting his name. He appeared to be unconscious, though.

I felt something wet at my foot, and I looked down, my body filling with alarm as water began filling the space very quickly. I banged against the wall in front of me as hard as I could, shouting for help. Now I had my stuck foot, the rising water, and being trapped to worry about.

I quickly decided that the rising water issue had to be dealt with first. I tried looking for the source of the water, but I couldn't find it anywhere. I finally just assumed that it was slipping through the cracks of the-_wherever I was _- and there was no way to stop it.

I was trapped.

If only I knew _where,_ and in _what._ If I could figure out in what, maybe I could figure out a way out.

That's when I found that the side of the-box, if you will, that I was facing was suddenly transparent, and I was looking straight into the mirror.

As the water finally reached up to my neck, I banged the wall as hard as I could, willing it to change into glass. This was my dream, I could make it glass if I wanted to!

But it wasn't working, and the water was quickly reaching the area of my nose. I finally tilted my head back, and took a final deep breath before it covered my entire head, and I was completely submerged in the water. I knew I didn't have much time left, so I had to at least figure out where I was. I racked my brain trying to put a name to the object that I could finally see. There was a lock, a dial...

The name finally hit me as my brain decided it was too oxygen starved and I began losing consciousness.

_Safe._

* * *

My eyes snapped open, and I threw myself forward, my hand going to my throat as I desperately gasped for air that I didn't need. There were tears of hysteria streaming down my face as the screams escaped my lips.

"Jules! Julie! Calm down!" I felt two strong hands grab my arms, and I stopped screaming long enough to register the face as Caroline's, who pulled me forwards and wrapped her arms around me in a fierce hug.

I began sobbing against her shoulder as she rubbed my back. "It's okay, you're awake now. It was just a dream."

I shake my head against her shoulder. "But it wasn't, Caroline! That's just the thing, it wasn't!"

Caroline pulled back, and gently cupped my face. "You're going home today. You, and Elena, and Damon are all going to find Stefan, and he's going to be perfectly fine. Understand?"

I looked at Caroline through my blurry tears, and managed a nod. She breathed a sigh of relief. "Good," She said, before pulling me into for another tight hug.

* * *

Elena hadn't been there for my outburst, and I made Caroline promise that she wouldn't breathe a word about it to her. Our mission right now was to find Stefan.

As Elena, Damon, and Caroline talked, I stepped over to the side, having already put my stuff in the car. I decided that until we found Stefan, I was gonna stay at the boarding house (I think that was what it was called), just to make things easier for all of us. I pulled my phone out, and began to text Matt the decision I made when I heard a voice saying my name, "Juliet Gilbert?"

I looked up, and blushed when I was looking at Doctor Maxfield. I honestly thought I was never gonna see him again when I made those comments, so you could probably imagine how embarrassed I was feeling as he walked over. He glanced at the travel bag at my side, and my suitcase in the open trunk. "Need a vacation already?"

"Yeah, you know, the stress of hardass teachers was a little overbearing, so I decided I needed a little time to clear my head," I said, giving him a pointed look.

He looked a little...smug? He smirked as he said, "I never pegged Juliet Gilbert as a quitter. Especially since when I kicked her out of my class, she responded by trying to seduce me."

I blushed very hotly, remembering yesterday morning. Yeesh, was that just yesterday? Time went by different in the conscious world, apparently. "Yeah, listen. I'm sorry about that. You just...I don't know. Pushed my buttons. I shouldn't have reacted inappropriately."

"That's right," Wes agreed. "I'm a teacher."

Before I could stop myself, I blurted, "Yeah, but you weren't _my_ teacher, so I guess that somehow made it okay in my mind." I instantly winced, and winced even harder at the look on Maxfield's face. "No! That's not what I meant!" I defended, getting all flustery. See the effects hot guys have on me? Wait, did I say that out loud?! I hope I didn't! "Look, the point is, I'm sorry."

The stupid jerk of a teacher could only laugh at my stumbling. Hot jerkbag! "I should apologize too. I shouldn't have been such a hard ass on you."

"No, you shouldn't have," I agreed, crossing my arms. "I'm a student."

"But you weren't _my _student," He responded, using my words. "So that made it okay in my mind."

I had to resist the urge to physically assault my-excuse me, _a _teacher as he continued. "So why are you going back?"

"Oh, I just have a couple of things to sort out. Turns out, my sister can't do anything right." Yes, pin the blame on Elena! According to the diary, it works every time!

Wes just smiled and nodded a bit. "You're-you're Grayson Gilbert's oldest daughter, right?"

"The one and only," I answered. "But hold up. You knew my dad."

"Knew _of _him. He's a legend around here. I studied all his research. I can only hope to do the kind of work he did around here," He spoke passionately. Passion. I like that.

Might as well bring up Megan. "So, does that somehow involve forging death certificates?"

Wes just shook his head with a cute smile before saying, "And here I thought you were just passionate about microbiology."

"Nah," I said, waving it off. "I'm just really passionate about hot teachers." Someone put a muzzle on my mouth. Please.

Wes just kept that cute smile on his face as he said, "I have office hours tomorrow. Come by. We can chat."

"Well, you're not the only teacher on my schedule, you know," I told him. "I have Professor Harley, Professor Johnston, Professor Press."

"So you can fit Professor Press but you can't fit me?" Wes asked sarcastically.

"What can I say?" I say innocently, lifting a shoulder. "I'm a busy student."

"Well, let me know when your schedule clears up," He said, turning around to leave.

But not without throwing a wink in my direction.

Huh. Who knew I was so good at this flirting thing?

Duh, I did. Back in the land of the conscious for not even two weeks and my game is strong, baby, strong!

"Where you just flirting with Doctor Maxfield?" A voice from my left says, and I jump about five feet in the air, and a little to the right.

I look over at my blonde friend that had asked the question that nearly gave me a heart attack. "_What the hell, Caroline?_"

"Well, were you?!" She repeated.

I calmed my heart down before I answered her. "Maybe a little."

"Why?"

"Well, he's cute!" I exclaimed. "He's got a good sense of humour, and most of all, cute. So excuse me if I want to be a little flirty in college!"

Caroline just looked at me, and the corners of her mouth turned upwards into a tiny smile. "That's my girl!" She threw an arm around me. "I've taught you well."

I laughed, before turning into her side and giving her a proper hug. "I'm going to miss you so much! Even when you snore!" Caroline exclaimed.

"Hey! I do _not_ snore!" I protested, but ended up laughing again. "I'm gonna miss you too, Care."

After Elena gives Caroline a quick goodbye, Elena, Damon, and I were all on the road, Damon explaining to me that Stefan was Silas's doppelganger, that they looked exactly alike.

I feel like since I've woken up, people have been thinking that my intelligence had left when my memories did.

* * *

"We didn't find anything in the quarry," Liz told Elena, Damon and I as the three of us trekked in the forest. "But a deputy found this a few miles away."

We all made our way to where Liz was talking about, and I felt a jolt run through me as I saw a large, clunky safe. The safe that Stefan has been drowning in all summer. My dream instantly came to my mind, and I had to put a hand to my throat to try and remind myself that I was awake, that that was a dream, that I wasn't really drowning in a quarry.

"Didn't open it," Sheriff Forbes went on. "If Stefan's been in here for three months-" She stepped backwards from the safe, pushing me behind her as she did so. "Chances are, he's hungry."

Damon looked over at me and Liz. "If you think he's going to attack you, _run_." The guy literally didn't leave room for argument. Not that I was going to, though.

When Liz and I nodded, Damon turned towards the safe, and carefully and cautiously unlocked it.

He swung the door open, and I'm not gonna lie when I say that I flinched when he did so. He peered inside, but didn't say anything. Elena looked in too, and then quickly turned her head away. "Oh my God," She groaned. "That's not Stefan."

"Well, you were right, he was hungry," Damon observed. We all subconsciously looked around us, as if Stefan was going to pop out of nowhere and just massacre us all. "I bet he still is," He said as he looked back into the safe.

_ Well, since Stefan's not inside of it, _I thought as I pushed past Liz to see what the big fuss was about. _How much harm could it be to look ins-_

And I realized it could have done me a lot of harm by looking into the safe. And it did.

There was a dead body inside, it's neck all tore away and covered in blood. What little I ate for breakfast made its way up, but I tried as hard as I could to keep it down. I tried thinking of anything cute. Bunnies, puppies, Doctor Maxfield!

But in the end, not even Doctor Good-Looking was enough to keep me from running towards a bush and tossing my cookies all over it.

* * *

**TBC...**

**A LOT of stuff in this episode! I really liked writing it! I think it may be my favourite to write so far.**

**Okay, so a lot of stuff was revealed this episode! We shall go more in depth with some of them in the next episode, Original Sin. Which, if it works out as well as I'm planning, should be up within this week, or before the weekend is up.**

**We also got a peek of her relationship with Klaus! Which shall also go more in depth as the story goes on.**

**P.S, What are you guys thinking of hers and Stefan's relationship? Good? Bad? What about hers and Doctor Good-Looking **_***ahem* **_**Doctor Wes Maxfield's? I personally find their flirting really fun to write! I might incorporate more of it, if you guys like it.**

**SO REVIEW! FOLLOW! FAVOURITE! THANKS! STAY TUNED!**


	3. Original Sin

**Disclaimer:** I don't own the Vampire Diaries! I just own my OC, Juilet Jordan Gilbert, and any other characters I make up along the way!

**Author's Note:** We are going to learn a lot about Juliet this episode!

**Enjoy!**

* * *

"_Where should we really go, though?" I asked Stefan as we got out of the car. Stefan, Lexi, and I were going to go away for the summer. Well, at first it was just him and Lexi, but Lexi invited me to tag along, and I agreed. What the hell was I going to do around here for the summer? Damon and Elena were going to spend the summer together, Matt had texted me saying that he was going on vacation with Rebekah and that I was welcome to keep staying in the house, and Bonnie is apparently going on vacation as well. _

_But first, we had to get rid of Silas's body, and we had decided to dispose of it in the quarry. On the ride up there, the veil must have gone back up, because Lexi disappeared, so now it was just Stefan and me._

_Stefan, after his confirmed break up with Elena after she picked Damon._

_And me, a girl hopelessly in love with her best friend that she was going away for the summer with._

_There's a sitcom in there somewhere, I know it._

_"I don't know," Stefan said as he went around the back to the trunk to take the bag with Silas's body out. "Go where the wind takes us, I guess?"_

_I just give him a look. "How horribly cliche, Montague."_

_"I try my best, Capulet," He responded as he opened the trunk._

_I kept my eyes trained on him as he did so, but stopped him before he could grab Silas's body. Might as well ask him now, so things aren't weird later. "How are you __doing?"_

_He freezes for a second, before slowly turning his head towards me. "Fine. Why wouldn't I be?"_

_I give him a sad smile. "Oh come on," I said, leaning on the side of the trunk. "You did just overhear your ex-girlfriend's passionate speech about how much she loved your brother. That's gotta cut deep."_

_"Wow, thanks for the reminder, Capulet," He said as he leaned on the car next to me, and we were silent for a couple seconds. _

_"I'm not happy about it," He finally spoke up. "But I'm not not happy for Damon."_

_I smile gently, and lean my head on his shoulder. "You'll always be the better brother in my mind, Montague."_

_"And you'll always be my favourite Gilbert," Stefan said, wrapping his arm around me and pressing me into his side more. "But don't tell Jeremy, I don't want him to get jealous."_

_We both shared a laugh as I felt my feelings for Stefan start to surface. I loved this guy. Like, really loved him. But my love struck mind is somehow thinking that telling him this right after my sister broke his heart was a good idea._

_"Stefan, I have to tell you something," I suddenly blurt. Shoot! Too late to take the words back._

_"What is it?" Stefan asked as he turned his head in my direction._

_"Uh...um..." I stammered. "You know what? I don't remember. If I remember it later, I'll tell you."_

_Stefan nodded, and he turned around to pick up Silas's body bag._

_Stupid! Stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid! Did I actually just almost do that? I'm such an idiot!_

_My mental assault on myself was suddenly stopped by Stefan's silence as he dropped the bag on the ground._

_"What's wrong?" I asked as he leaned over the bag, rifling through it. He wasn't answering me, so I walked over to see what the big fuss was._

_And where Silas's body was supposed to be, was just stone. A LOT of broken stone._

_I look over at Stefan in confusion, and he's looking at me the same way. Simultaneously, we both turned back to the bag and began shaking it, seeing if it was all stone._

_"Don't bother," Elena's voice called out. "I'm not there."_

_Stefan and I both immediately spun around and stood up, Stefan pushing me behind him slightly so that he was standing in front of me._

_"Silas," He breathed._

_Silas smiled at us as he looked directly at me and said, "Wake up, JJ. Wake up." _

_Wake up? What the hell..._

* * *

"Up and at 'em, JJ!"

My eyelids flew open as I launched myself forward, taking deep breaths as I escaped my dream world. I looked over to the person that had rudely awakened me, and saw Elena sitting next to me on my bed. Well, the guest room in the boarding house's bed.

"Elena? What are you doing in here? And why did you call me JJ?" I asked her. She looked like Elena, but somehow...didn't feel like her.

Elena rolled her eyes. "Wrong doppelganger, JJ."

"What?" I asked, rubbing the sleep out of my eyes. "Elena, just get out."

Elena just looked at me in confusion when it seemed to hit her. "Right. I forgot about your whole coma, no memory, mess."

I narrowed my eyes at her. Her hair was big and wavy...the way she was acting...intruding in my space...

"Are you...Kathy?" I asked.

Elena rolled her eyes again before she said, "You're seriously starting to annoy me with your memory thing, but you're cool, so no, not Kathy." She smirked at me. "Katherine."

"You're the doppelganger, aren't you?" I questioned, then gestured for her to get off of my bed.

"And you're still stating the obvious," Katherine said as she slid off. "Glad to know that's still the same."

"Okay...Katherine," I said. "What do you want? But more importantly, what are you doing in my room?"

"I had a dream about Stefan," She said, and I immediately wanted to blurt that I did too, but I'm pretty sure we had two different dreams, so I kept my mouth shut. "And I needed to tell somebody."

"Why couldn't you have told Elena or Damon? Or your friends?"

"Because you're the closest thing I've got," She answered.

"To what?" I asked.

Katherine looked a bit uncomfortable, before she quickly changed the subject. "Just, get up. Get ready. Today is that day that we save Stefan, JJ." With that, she spun on her heel and began walking out the door.

"Hey! What do you mean? And what the hell is a 'JJ'?"

* * *

After Katherine had rudely woken me up, I took a fast shower and changed into a flower printed dress with a cardigan and small boots, before quickly making myself a coffee. If I have to deal with craziness in the morning, I can't do it without coffee.

According to Elena, she and Katherine had had the same dream about Stefan the night before, and that is really our only lead in finding him, so we're gonna go with it.

"So, I found nine bars off of Route Twenty-Nine," Damon told us as I walked back into the living room with my cup of coffee. "And none of them are called Jo's."

"I had a feeling that something was wrong with Stefan all summer, and I ignored it," Elena said, shaking her head.

"Kind of like you basically ignored your sister, who was in a coma all summer," Katherine piped up, walking into the room, a bag on her arm. "Hell, even I went to go see her."

Elena and I very got uncomfortable, so I changed the subject as fast as I could. "Don't you guys think that it is a little crazy that you and Katherine both had the same dream on the same night? And our only lead is said dream. Which could just be a stupid dream."

"It isn't just a little crazy," Damon agreed with me. "It's a lot crazy." He quickly looked over to Elena who was giving him a look. "But I'm open minded."

I just rolled my eyes at that. Damon and Elena were both so whipped, it's really hard to tell who was doing the whipping the most.

"Anyways," Katherine said. "I call shotgun."

Elena, Damon, and I all looked over at her. Elena and Damon, in confusion, but me, I was just grateful for the distraction.

"What?" She asked. "I get carsick in the backseat."

Katherine stepped down and walked into the living room more. "A charming human side effect that you stuck me with," Katherine said, throwing Elena an accusatory look.

"Please tell me that she's not coming," Elena hissed to Damon.

"Trust me, I have no interest in Katherine's well being, but-for some reason-Silas wants her, real bad. And if Silas wants her, then I want her more," He explained.

I found myself nodding in approval at Damon's decision. "That makes sense."

Elena looked over at me with a bewildered look. "What?"

I just shrugged. "Leverage. The harder we make it for him to get his hands on Katherine, the more he'll come out. He seems like the sort of person that would send people out to do his bidding, and Damon said that he compelled the town square to look for Katherine. But you know the saying," I spoke, taking a final sip of my coffee before stepping the cup on a table. "'If you want something done right, you gotta do it yourself.'"

"And that's how you're justifying keeping someone who's tried to kill us and our friends and family around?" Elena asked.

I'm ready for this one, though. "Well, Miss Elena, if I can recall correctly-"

"You can't recall anything," Elena pointed out.

"But my diary sure can," I threw back at her, before going back to my point. "Damon's tried to kill you, and our family members too. But you still keep him around."

And that was pretty much the worst thing to say. While Katherine was giving me a look of approval, Damon and Elena just stared at me for a second before awkwardly turning away.

"Can't we just stash her in the cellar?" Elena asked Damon, trying to clear the awkward atmosphere I had just created. What? I like to be blunt, okay? "Or maybe a deep, dark well, with a pair of water wings?"

"Do you honestly think that I wanna take a road trip with you?" Katherine growled. "America's most boring, self-righteous vampire?" Elena rolled her eyes as Katherine continued. "Just remember, Damon wouldn't have to play bodyguard if you hadn't shoved that Cure down my throat."

"Wait, Katherine took the Cure?" I asked. I remember reading about it in my diary. We had spent so long and done so much to get Elena that stupid Cure, and she used it on Katherine? Of all people?

"Missing stuff tends to happen when you're comatosed, Starshine," Katherine informed me. She stood up, and walked over to the piano bench. "Though, I will admit, I do take pride in knowing that you wasted your one shot at human life on me." She gave Elena a wide grin as her doppelganger scoffed.

"Okay, you guys can battle it out," I spoke up, gesturing at the two look alikes. "While I will go and do something productive. Like finding my best friend." And with that, I grabbed Damon's keys and was out the door.

* * *

I didn't actually leave without them, I just sat in the backseat and waited for them to settle if Katherine was coming or not, and when Damon and Elena came out, Elena's carbon copy following them, I got my answer.

So here we were, maybe a couple hours later in Damon's car as we drove down the highway. Katherine joined me in the backseat, but I tried to ignore her by sticking earbuds in my ears and blasting Katy Perry.

Damon, Katherine, and Elena all start discussing something, but I'm not listening to them. I'm listening to E.T. as I thought about my own dream with Stefan.

It was very clear that it was not just a dream. It was too strong to be one, like the one that I had back at Whitmore. Also, Silas was there, and Stefan and I were supposed to be going off for a vacation, which is what the last part of my most recent diary had stated.

Maybe he was trying to reach me, in a different way than he was Elena and Katherine. But why would he call out for Katherine? According to my diaries, they all hated her. Except for me, sometimes. I would sometimes show her sympathy. Though even pre-coma me didn't even understand why.

Katherine tapped my shoulder, and I took out one headphone. "What?"

"JJ, do you think that maybe Stefan's been trying to reach out to Elena all summer, but because she was too busy with Damon he reached out to me?" She asked.

I looked between Katherine and Elena, but just shook my head. "I'm not the creepy doppelganger that had a weird dream, so please leave me out of this." I was just supposed to be the coma person!

* * *

After another hour of driving (and me kicking at myself for drinking that coffee because a) I could have slept some more and b) I really had to pee), we pulled up to a bar. Damon, Elena, and I all quietly got out of the car, as Katherine was passed out in the seat next to me.

"Are we really just gonna leave her in the car?" Elena asked us.

"The only time she shuts up is when she's sleeping. I don't want to be the one to disturb our peace and quiet," Damon answered.

I pointed towards him. "You, my friend, can be a smart man sometimes."

Elena stopped in her tracks, and I bumped into her because I wasn't looking where I was going. But Damon caught me before I could fall and maybe launch myself into another coma.

Elena looked a bit uncertain, and that's probably why she stopped walking. "I thought you said this was the one," Damon said as he righted me and made sure I was okay.

"It is. It looked exactly like it did in the dream," She answered. "Isn't it a little..freaky?"

"Does it really matter?" I ask Elena. "After three months of starvation and drowning over and over again, Stefan could actually be in there. And we could actually help him. So just stop it with the self doubt and just focus on the task at hand." With that, I pushed past her and opened the door of the bar, Elena and Damon on my heels.

We walked in, but all we saw was an empty bar, with a white-blonde haired woman with a bandage on her neck standing behind the bar.

I huffed in defeat. So I sacrificed my sleep for this?

"Can I get you something?" She asked us.

"Yeah, sure," Damon answered as he walked over to the bar, leaning over it. I went and stood next to him as he smiled at the woman and asked, "Why don't you tell me what happened to your neck, Jo?"

By the way his pupils were dilating as he asked Jo the question, I could tell that he was using his vampire power thingy...compulsion, I think it was called?

"Uh...some sicko attacked me. Bit me. Told me to run, so I did, and when I turned around, he was on fire," She answered.

"The sun must have come up," Elena whispered to us. "He doesn't have his Daylight ring."

"And then what happened?" Damon pressed.

"Some woman shoved him into a truck. Drove away."

"And did you know this woman?"

"No. Uh, she was driving a Cam Peterson's truck? He lives about ten miles down that dirt road out back," Jo informed us as she poured Damon a couple of shots. "You look like you could use one of these," She said, passing one to him.

Elena and I exchanged looks of confusion. Stefan couldn't have been gone. Kidnapping sounded insane!

"Hmm," Damon murmured, taking the small glass in his hand. "I could. Thank you." He quickly downed the shot, but just as quickly it went down, it came back up. He was violently coughing, just like Caroline the day she drank Megan's protein water.

That was filled with vervain.

Damon slapped his hand on the table, hard. "Vervain," He managed to choke out. Aha! So I was right!

"What did you do?" Elena demanded.

"I told her to pour him a drink," A thick accented female said as she walked out of the shadows. "Or I'd kill her."

The woman quickly pulled out a gun before training it on Elena. Damon quickly moved to stand in front of the two of us. "Who the hell are you?" He questioned as he struggled to regain his regular breathing after the vervain poisoned him.

Before the woman had a chance to answer, Katherine walked into the bar, seemingly a little pissed that we left her in the car until that worry went down the drain as she saw the woman holding a gun. The woman looked between Katherine and Elena. "Which one of you is Katherine Pierce?"

Without a seconds hesitation, Katherine pointed at Elena and said, "She is!"

The woman just smiled. "Katherine is a compulsive liar." She looked back to Elena and put the gun back on her. "But I need her alive."

Suddenly, Elena pounced on the woman, holding her down as she screamed, "Katherine, run!"

Again, without hesitation, Katherine spun around and ran in the other direction.

Why didn't I run with her?

Being just a human, I threw myself in front of the bar and away from the scary woman with the gun as she and Elena faced off. The woman quickly overpowered Elena (why does that not surprise me?) and threw her against a wall before she dashed out of the bar.

"Jules, are you okay?" Elena groaned as I peeked my head over the bar.

"Never better," I answered as I pulled myself up.

"Wonderful," Damon muttered as he helped Elena off of the ground. "Now I've got a vampire bounty hunter to deal with. Let me guess; Euro-bitch was not a part of the dream?"

"I've never seen her before," Elena confessed.

"Well, whoever she is, she wants Katherine, which means that she's probably Silas's spy," Damon guessed.

"I'll go chase after her," Elena suggested. "You guys go save Stefan." She turned around to run, but Damon grabbed her arm before she had the chance.

"Wait, what? No! She almost killed you!" Damon protested.

"We don't have time for detour," Elena insisted. "Stefan's hurt. Just find him." She moved to run again, but Damon kept his grip on her arm.

"Wait, no! Stop!" She finally turned around to face him. "Any sign of trouble, you let her go, do you understand? I don't care how much Silas wants Katherine, she's not worth a hair on your head."

Aww. That was actually kinda sorta sweet. But I did not have time for kinda sorta sweet Damon and Elena-ness.

I can feel another name there.

* * *

After Elena and Damon shared a quick kiss, the two of us made our way back to the car, where the air was, in a word, tight.

I actually felt like I couldn't breathe. That's how high the tension was. When we stopped in front of the cabin, I quickly got out and ran to Damon's side as he got out of the car.

"What I said this morning was totally uncalled for and I'm sorry and as long as you make Elena happy I'm cool with it," I quickly say, before taking in a deep breath. There's one thing to get off of my chest.

Damon smiles slightly. "It's okay. I know how easy it is for Elena to push your buttons. Especially after you got hurt."

That was something that I actually didn't go over that much in my diary. I vaguely mentioned it but that was it. All I know was that Matt was the one to take care of me. Good old Matty boy.

"So we're cool?" I asked as we turned around to approach the cabin.

"We're cool," He said as he wrapped his arm around my shoulders. "You're my girlfriend's sister. I couldn't hate you."

"Who said anything about hate?" I asked, in a fake offended tone.

"Whatever," Damon said as we got to the door. We stood outside it for a minute before he turned to me, "Any sign of danger and you're out of here, got it?"

I didn't want to be bossed around, but I also didn't want to be vampire chow. So I just nodded at Damon's request, and he opened the door.

We carefully walked in, and Damon stepped in front of me as we did so. As Damon surveyed the area, my eyes fell on him.

On Stefan.

The real Stefan.

My heart swelled as I saw him sitting in a chair, all tied up with some sort of plant. There was a weird ring of flowers around him, but I ignored everything as I tapped Damon's arm, getting his attention.

"Stefan?" Damon whispered when he looked over. "You couldn't call, brother?" He asked as we walked towards him.

Stefan began struggling against the rope-things as we got to him. "Nice to see you too, Damon." Stefan's eyes travel back at me. "Capulet! Are you-"

"I'm fine. I'll explain everything later, right now we have to get you out of here," I whispered as I hid my giddiness. He called me Capulet!

"What the hell is going on here?" Damon asked his brother.

"Well," Stefan started. "Silas's ex-girlfriend decided to come back from the Other Side," He went on as Damon began tugging at his restraints.

"Qetsi-whatever?" Damon asked as he pulled at the rope.

"It's Qetsiyah," Another feminine voice said, and I quickly spun around to see a gorgeous young woman holding a flower. She walked towards us, but past me as she got to Stefan. "Do you see why I want to change it?"

She kept walking until she got to the fireplace. "You won't be able to break those vines," She let Damon know. "The spell won't release him until I get what I want."

Damon stood up. "Well, I guess the rumours are true. You are a ray of sunshine."

Qetsiyah stood up, a bowl in her hands. "I'm going to link Stefan to Silas. Casting a spell on his doppelganger will neutralize Silas's mental powers. Once he's weakened, I will force him to take the Cure."

"Well, that's a great idea," Damon said sarcastically. "Force the Cure down his throat. The Cure's gone! Done. It's ingested."

"Katherine, you mean?" Qetsiyah clarified. "I'm aware of her condition. She was supposed to be with you."

"Wait, Katherine took the Cure?" Stefan asked.

I nodded. "Apparently, you miss three months in this stupid town and it's like you missed seven years."

"We have a lot to catch up on, Stefan," Damon supplied, probably lot better than I did. He looked back at Qetsiyah. "What do you mean, 'supposed to be with' me?" He asked, and Qetsiyah didn't respond. That's when it hit him. "Did you plant those dreams? Was it some kind of witch party trick?"

"Where is she?" Qetsiyah went on.

"We...ran into a little snag."

"Then I'll get started without her," Qetsiyah informed us. She began waving her hand over the bowl she was holding, while chanting some sort of spell that sort of made me feel all tingly. What's up with that?

"Okay, well, thanks for the hospitality, but we should really get going if we want to beat traffic," Damon said, patting his brother on the shoulder.

"Yep. Yep, he's right," Stefan supported.

"Also, I wanted to go to McDonalds, and I think they're about to get rushy, and I don't feel like waiting," I added.

Qetsiyah ignored Stefan and Damon, and looked over to me, as if she just realized that I was standing in the room. "Eumelia Christos. I was wondering when I'd get to meet you."

"What?" I asked her. What was she talking about?

She rolled her eyes. "Of course, you are going by Juliet Gilbert now."

"How do you know my name?" I demanded. This woman seems to know more about me than I do!

"Because I knew your ancestors," Qetsiyah answered. "They are the ones that helped me create the Immortality spell."

"Wait, I thought it was Silas that created the spell," I stated. I had a lot of time when I first got to the boarding house; I went to Jeremy and did some research. I also still knew that I was adopted, but I never really did any research about my birth family. Maybe Qetsiyah knew something useful.

Qetsiyah growled. "No. The asshole tried to pawn it off of me."

"Then how could my family have helped create the spell?" I was still so lost.

"By their blood, of course," She answered, and my jaw dropped. "The blood of one of the most powerful Travelers in existence was a must have to give the spell a little boost. You and your family are different kinds of Travelers."

"A what now?" I repeated. "A Traveler?"

Qetsiyah looked over to Damon. "How do you deal with it? She knows nothing!"

"What are you saying?" Damon asked. "That Jules is a Traveler?"

"You know what? Find answers on your own, I'm wasting my time," Qetsiyah said, and held out her hand towards me. "Give me your wrist."

I instantly brought my hands to my chest. "Why? What do you want with me?"

"I need your blood to perform the spell," She explained. "It'll give the spell more power and therefore neutralize Silas even more."

"That is not going to happen," Damon defended, moving to stand in front of me.

"Probably don't want to get on my bad side," Qetsiyah threatened.

"You realize that you're not the only one with a bad side, right?" Damon growled.

Qetsiyah gives Damon a look. "Without Silas's mental powers, he is an immortal nobody. We can defeat him. Isn't that what you want?"

Damon is silent after that, so I speak up. "I'll do it."

"What?" Damon's head swivled towards me. "Jules, you can't-"

"Yes, I can, Damon!" I protest. "Look, we're wasting time. The more time we give Silas is more time that he'll get more powerful." I look from my wrist, then to Qetsiyah. "If I give you my blood, you will have to explain more about me being a Traveler."

Qetsiyah hesitates for a second before nodding, and she held out her hand again.

"Don't do it," Stefan warned "Don't do it, Jules. She could take all your blood."

"Oh, relax," The witch said. "I only need a little bit."

"It's okay, Stefan," I said, not once taking my eyes off of Qetsiyah. She grabbed a small knife on the table, before gesturing for me to give her my wrist again.

"I'm a big girl," I slowly put my wrist in Qetsiyah's hand, my palm face down. "I can make my own decisions."

"And very smart ones," Qetsiyah said as she flipped my wrist over so that my palm was facing up. She made a quick but small cut on my wrist, and I had to repress my scream as she tilted my wrist towards her bowl so that my blood poured into it. I grit my teeth at the pain, and it seems like forever that Qetsiyah is pouring my blood, and at first I think that she really is going to take all of my blood when she lets go of my hand. I immediately bring my wrist back to me, but the sudden movement makes me dizzy, and I almost go crashing to the ground, but Damon fought me before I could.

"I thought you said you only needed a little?" He asked as he helped me up.

Qetsiyah shrugged. "That was a little. She's probably just not used to having blood drained from her."

I started seeing black spots, and I tried shaking my head to escape the dizziness.

But that was when the same headache I got at the Whitmore dorm came back, and I screamed as the violent assault on my mind began. Like before, it came with images.

Silas was there...or was it Stefan? He was laying down on the couch in the Salvatore living room, and he was all gray and gross looking, black veins crawling all over his body. Was he dead? That wasn't possible. Was it?

The flashes and the pain stopped almost as quickly as they came, and I took very deep breaths in as my body struggled to regain control.

I felt a hand rubbing at my back. "What did you do to her?" Damon's voice said.

"I didn't do anything," I faintly heard Qetsiyah. "I just took her blood."

I didn't hear much of anything else after as my eyes fell shut and I was sucked into black.

* * *

_Blood was seeping out of the wound in my stomach faster by the second. I was in such mind numbing pain that I almost didn't feel anything. Key word being, almost._

_I still couldn't believe she actually did it. I mean, I probably shouldn't have antagonized her, but I really didn't think that she'd actually do it._

_But I reminded myself that she had no humanity. She didn't feel anything. She wasn't my sister anymore. And I couldn't trust her._

_I tried to keep my whimpers quiet, but Damon could obviously hear them as he sped to Matt's house. "I'm sorry Jules, I promise we're almost there."_

_There was too much blood in my throat for me to answer. I knew Damon wasn't taking me to the hospital because he could heal me himself, but I somehow felt that I might have been safer in a hospital._

_Damon didn't even bother to knock; he just kicked the door open. Matt was in the hallway in seconds to see what was going on, and his eyes widened when he saw Damon carrying me, all bloody and dying and with a whole in my stomach where Elena had stabbed me. With a tree branch._

_"Don't ask questions," Damon told Matt as he walked inside with me. "Just get a towel and a first aid kit."_

_Matt quickly did as Damon demanded as Damon took me into the living room. Matt threw the towel over the couch as Damon gently put me down on it. I winced at the pain of being put down. My whole body felt like it was made of glass._

_Damon immediately opened the first aid kit and began pawing through it, looking for something. Matt came over and crouched down next to me, and grabbed my hand. _

_He looked back over at Damon. "I don't think this can be fixed with some disinfectant and a bandage."_

_"Shut up, Donovan," Damon said as he pulled out apparently what he was looking for. It was a syringe. I was about to ask what he was going to do with it when he stuck the needle directly into his chest. He grimaced as he took some blood out of himself._

_"What are you doing with that?" Matt asked Damon as Damon took the needle out of the chest._

_Damon shoved Matt out of the way as he came over and leaned right above me. "Saving her life."_

_Without another word, he plunged the needle directly into my heart, and my chest tightened as he pressed down on the plunger. _

_Damon's blood began coursing through my blood the minute he pressed down. As he took the needle out, I took a deep breath in, my chest beginning to loosen. I looked down to my stomach, and saw the hole beginning to close up. I looked back up at Damon, who was staring at my stomach. "Admiring your girlfriend's handiwork?" I asked sarcastically._

_Damon just shook his head as he put the needle back into the kit. He turned to Matt. "You have to watch her. Extra carefully too, since I put the blood directly into her heart. She should get better, but if she doesn't, call me and we'll do it again."_

_With a final glance at me, Damon stood up, and left the house. Matt turned back to me, and pushed my hair back. "What happened, Jules?"_

_The blood was working it's magic, because I felt well enough to answer him. "Elena. I was upset that she had burned down the house with Jeremy inside, and I didn't get to say goodbye. Then she began taunting me, and then I began taunting her, and then she threatened to stab me with a branch. I didn't actually think she'd do it."_

_Matt got up from his spot beside me and left the room, but he quickly came back, a blanket in his hands. He threw it over me as he said, "Just forget it. Besides, you heard Damon. You're going to be fine."_

_"But I can't forget it, Matty," I said, tears forming in my eyes. "She burned down our house, with our baby brother's body inside. She tried to kill me. I can't trust her, not anymore. Especially not with my life."_

_Matt nodded, listening to me. Then, he said, "Do you want soup?"_

_I smiled at him. "You know which kind?"_

_"Well, you're hurt, so you want tomato soup with grilled cheese sandwiches," He responded with a smile._

_"You should get a prize," I suggested._

_"Nah, I just know my best friend," He said, and gave me a quick kiss on the forehead. "I'll be right back."_

_I nodded, and leaned my head back on the couch as he left the room. I felt myself being filled with warm, mostly because of Damon's blood coursing through my veins _

_and healing me, but also because, Matt was someone that truly cared about me._

_Sometimes that I could trust._

_Maybe even with my life, should the opportunity arise._

* * *

I woke up, thought not as violently this time. I looked around myself, and saw that I was no longer in Qetsiyah's cabin, but I was back in my bed at the boarding house. Wait, could today have possibly been a dream?

But a quick look down at my bandaged wrist made me remember that Qetsiyah had taken my blood. And then all that Traveler talk came back to me. And that's when I realized something.

She didn't tell me anything about it.

I feel cheated.

* * *

**TBC...**

**JULES IS A TRAVELER, WHAT?**

**Yup. You read right.**

**All this stuff is going to come to play, I promise.**

**I'm sorry it ended kind of weakly. I'm going to a party tonight and I wanted this chapter done today.**

**Also, we are getting some Klaus flashbacks next episode! Who's excited for that?**

**Speaking of Klaus, what do you guys think of me maybe doing an AU where Jules goes to New Orleans with Klaus? She still wouldn't have memories, so it'd be like Klaus is trying to make her fall in love with him again.**

**NOT TO SAY THAT SHE LOVES HIM NOW. She does, it's just a different kind of love. But in the NOLA AU, it wouldn't be.**

**So let me know what you think!**

**REVIEW! FOLLOW! FAVOURITE! THANKS! STAY TUNED!**


	4. For Whom The Bell Tolls

**Disclaimer: **I don't own the Vampire Diaries! I just own my OC, Juilet Jordan Gilbert, and any other characters I make up along the way!

**Author's Note: **So you guys know what happens in 5x18 Resident Evil, right? Well, Stefan and Elena are still going to have the visions, but I'm going to make a whole AU chapter of human Jules and human Stefan. I've started it, and it's actually kind of good.

**Enjoy!**

* * *

At least Stefan and I have another thing in common.

We've both got amnesia.

Yup. Apparently when Qetsiyah did her witchy voodoo, she stripped Stefan's mind of all his memories. And when I say all, I do mean _all._ Ever since he was born. And I felt bad for him. _I_ felt bad for _him._ Is pitying a guy really the way to his heart?

Whatever. I made my way to the library here, and it's surprisingly big, for such a small town.

Qetsiyah said she'd tell me about being a Traveler, but that didn't work out. And she did say to find answers on my own. So that's what I've been trying to do. Not surprisingly, there aren't many books on Travelers. I've emailed and texted Bonnie asking her if she knew anything about Travelers (since she is our resident witch, apparently. All the weird things that happened when we were kids suddenly makes so much more sense) but she hasn't been replying.

Anyways, I've found a couple books with Travelers mentioned in them, but they were pretty small sections. All that I found out is that Travelers are like witches, but they're really just like a subtopic of them. What I mean by that is that they can use magic, but it's different than traditional magic. What it basically means is that Travelers can't call on nature for magic, which is why Travelers hold grudges against all witches who _can_.

Also, some of these supposed 'spells' are really ridiculous. There is a brain linking spell (though I have seen this in person; it's what Qetsiyah did to Stefan), a Heart-Desiccation spell (it's used to stop one's heart), and a pain infliction spell. I tried reading out the pain infliction spell, "Oshalana," But nothing happened. I guess I would have to channel my energy and such to get it to work.

But I think my favourite spell is the Passanger Spell. Basically, it makes Travelers capable of transfering themselves into the bodies of other people, the person in the host body being called a Passenger.

Yeah, when I got into the whole 'spirit possession' thing, I stopped reading. It made my head hurt.

So instead, I looked up Eumelia Christos, my supposed birth name. All I found was that my birth parents died in a house fire, which I did know already, Miranda and Grayson already told me.

And that's when my phone rang. Not taking my eyes off of my laptop screen, I answered it. "Y'ello?"

"First of all, never say that again," Elena said.

I slightly hang my head. "Okay. What do you want?"

"Come over to the Mystic Grill," She suggested. "I'm on my way there now. Stefan and Damon are already there. Where are you?"

"Just at the library," I answered, shutting my laptop down and stuffing it inside my laptop bag. "Doing some research on Travelers."

"Are you really going to listen to what Qetsiyah said?" Elena asked. "She could have been lying."

"I don't know, Lena," I pondered as I left the library and made for my car. "She seemed really desperate for my blood. And if it does have the powers that she said it does, then it could come in handy. If it doesn't, still doesn't hurt to find out what she's so crazy about."

"I guess you're right," She sighed. "Whatever. Just get your butt to the Grill. It's Rememberance Day."

"Remind me what that was?" I asked her as I got into my car.

"You know, I can never tell if you make puns on purpose or if you're just a natural at them."

"I am 'punny'," I say with a smirk, starting my car up.

"Ha ha, I forgot how to laugh. Anyways, it's a day for us to remember the dead," She answered.

"Do my memories count?"

"I think so. Either way, just get over to the Grill in ten minutes."

"On my way. Yeesh, you're bossy."

"Good thing you didn't forget _that_."

* * *

"I feel like this town finds any excuse to drink," I tell Elena when I get to the Grill, snatching the shot right out of her hand before tossing it back.

"Which I am finding out," Stefan comments.

I smile at him. He's still adorable, with his adorable amnesianess. Am I the same way with other people?

"Um, what's your name again?" Stefan asked, and my smile disappeared. I was finally properly reunited with Stefan and he doesn't remember my name. Perfect.

"It's Juliet," I tell him, my smile plastered on my face. "But apparently, it's actually Eumelia. Just stick with Juliet, though."

"Are you always this confusing?" Stefan asked.

I said "No" at the same time as Elena and Damon said, "Yes."

Wow. Way to stick up for your friend, guys.

Well, this seems like a good time to split. Why did I even come, again? "Well, if you'll excuse me, I actually have a few errands to run."

"Wait!" Elena stopped me in my tracks. "Can't you at least stay for another drink?"

"Actually, I'm not really supposed to be drinking. Don't tell Doctor Cameron though, she'll kick my ass." I turn around, and wave goodbye at them, and left the Grill.

But not without tapping the bell that was beside the entrance.

* * *

"Honey, I'm home!" I called into the house as I stepped inside. I saw Matt's car in the driveway, so I expected him to be home. I walked into the house, and frowned when I caught something moving out of the corner of my eye.

"Matt, I swear to God, if you're hiding behind a door and waiting to scare me, I will not hesitate to kick you right where it hurts," I threatened as I inched towards where I saw something move.

As I got closer, I heard a sort of clicking noise, and frowned when I identified the object to be a camera. Why is there a camera in the corner of the hallway?

"Jules?"

I yelped, and spun on my heels to see Matt standing behind me. "Matty! What's with the cameras? Are we on the next season of Big Brother?"

"That's not it, Jules," Matt said, grabbing my elbow and leading me into the living room.

"The Kardashians? Because let me tell you, I have a few choice words for Kendall..."

"Jules! This is serious," Matt said as he sat us down on the couch.

"Whoa," I breathe. "What's up, Matty? Is something wrong?"

"I think there is," He explained. "I just finished talking to Jeremy about it. This Czech girl I met while I was with Rebekah over the summer put something in my head, and I don't think it went away."

"What do you mean, put something?" I repeated. "Like, she sliced open your head?"

"No, I mean she grabbed the sides of my head, and muttered something. And ever since then, sometimes I'd wake up in the randomest places, with no memory of what happened. The other night, I woke up covered in mud. With a knife beside me."

"Well, you couldn't have been injured," I point out. "You'd be bleeding." And that's when I got an idea. "Hey! I have an idea."

"What?" Matt asked eagerly.

"Okay, so I've recently found out that I'm a Traveler, which is a type of witch-"

"Wait, you're a witch?" Matt asked, all confused.

"Yeah, apparently so. Anyways, maybe what she did was magical, and maybe I can reverse it," I suggest.

"You really think you can figure out what's wrong with me?" Matt asked uncertainly.

"Wow, Matt. It's nice to know how much trust you have in me, considering all the trust I put in _you_."

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry. Just, try something."

"Okay," I said. Wait, what do I do? I don't even know what's wrong with him! Well, Matt did say that the Czech woman put it in his head, so maybe I should do something with his head. I put my hand on either side of his head, and closed my eyes as I mentally pictured shoving a faceless body out of Matt's head.

"Is it working?" I asked, my eyes still closed.

"I don't know," Matt answered. "Am I supposed to feel something?"

I huffed, taking my hands down from his head and opening my eyes. "I don't know. But I could do some research on it, if you want."

"Thanks. Man, I wish Bonnie was back," Matt commented. "She'd probably know."

"I tried emailing and texting her about this whole Traveler nonsense and I haven't gotten a reply back," I told him. "Has she been answering you?"

He shakes his head. "She just replied twice. To my three hundred emails."

"I wonder why she's not back yet," I said as I leaned my head on Matt's shoulder. "I hope she's okay."

* * *

After Matt and I had a quick lunch, I decided to take a walk around Mystic Falls. I haven't actually explored the place, and this might be my best chance at getting some memories back.

But so far, nothing's happened. I've been walking for about an hour and nothing's happened. Maybe it's because I'm too in town. Maybe I should move out into the forest.

I'm listening to Demi Lovato as I walk, and I'm too focused on the music, rather than where I'm walking. When I finally snap back into attention, I realized that I was standing in front of a big ass mansion. It was giving me weird vibes, like I knew the place. Knew it pretty well, actually.

So that's what made my feet move forward, and I walked up the steps to the door of the mansion. I tried the doorknob, but it was locked. So I began looking around for a key, and found one under the matt. I put the key inside the lock, and unlocked it, before letting myself inside.

And yeah, I guess it could have been perceived as trespassing, but it looked like the place had been abandoned for at least a couple of months.

I felt chills running down my back as I walked into the house, and I completely fawned over the giant stairwell that was inside. I'm a huge sucker for this kind of stuff.

As I walked further into the house, I felt some tugging at the back of my head. I ran my hand along the railing as I walked up the stairs, dreaming of all the dancing and action that must have taken place here.

I went up the last step and came across a couple hallways. Damn, this place is huge. I decided to go left as I entered the first bedroom on the left. And there was nothing here. No evidence that a human (or nonhuman) being has been living here.

But there _was_ a letter on the beside table.

I assumed it was just left behind, but closer inspection revealed the envelope to say _Juliet Gilbert _in elegant handwriting. Intrigued, I picked it up before leaving the room, shutting the door behind me. Then, as I opened the envelope, I made my way back down the stairs, and sat down on the last one as I pulled the letter out.

_My Dearest Juliet,_

_ In case I don't see you before I leave, I wanted to tell you that I will miss you dearly. And the other paper inside this envelope, is the deed to this mansion, which I've left in your name. I know, right now you're probably having a fit because I've given you the house, but I cannot think of a better person for my home to go to. Because, after everything that you've done, you _are_ my home, Juliet Gilbert. And I'm hoping that one day you'll join me in my new one. Just someday soon, because you are still a human and I don't want you to be so old that you won't be able to do anything once you've gotten here. Either way, this _isn't_ goodbye, dear Juliet. This is simply farewell, until we meet again. And if you need me, I'm always just a phone call away._

_ So until we meet again._

_ Farewell, my sweet Juliet Gilbert._

_ Forever yours, Klaus._

_ P.S. I do believe that the necklace inside this envelope belongs to you._

After I'm done reading the letter, I pull out the forms he was talking about, and saw it all written up with his signature, and an empty dotted line where I was supposed to sign. Then, I pull out the necklace. It was pretty simple, just a star locket. When I opened it, I saw a small herb inside. I sniffed it, and quickly identified it as vervain, and then identified the necklace to be the necklace that Stefan had supposedly given me to keep me from compulsion. I must have left it at here at some point.

_ Well, he was right about one thing,_ I thought as I slipped the necklace on.

I'm upset that he left me the mansion.

I mean, what am I supposed to do with such a big house? All of my relatives were dead (adoptive _and _biological)and I don't have that many friends. Maybe that's what I should do. Have a party, make more friends. Human friends.

And being in possession of this house means that I have another place to live. But I don't want to stop living with Matt.

Oh well. At least I have this house. And it was incredibly sweet of Klaus to leave it to me. And for him to think that I was his home. And for him to want me to visit him in New Orleans. Hmm. Maybe I should.

Just spitballing ideas, here.

* * *

I decided that that was enough soul searching for one day, and made it to the cemetery in town, where everyone was getting drunk.

Sounds like my kind of party.

When I got there, the first person I ran into was Caroline. "Hey!" I said, leaning over and giving my best friend a hug. "What are you doing here?"

"Well, you know me," She said. "I can't pass up an opportunity to drink."

"Nice one," I said, and we both turned around and just walked and talked for a bit before we ran into Stefan.

"Stefan?" Caroline called his name, and he turned around, and surprise surprise, there was a bottle of alcohol in his hand.

"Caroline Forbes," Stefan said. "And Juliet. My best friends."

"Wait, you recognize us?" Caroline asked, gesturing between the two of us.

"Well, I met Juliet earlier, but I've studied pictures of you. You are much hotter in person," He said, raising the bottle to his lips.

I couldn't help the snort that escaped me, and Caroline whacked my on the arm as Stefan said, "I'm sorry. I'm a little drunk."

"No kidding," I said.

"Yeah, I can see that," Caroline added, and she walked a little closer to Stefan. "Are you okay?"

"Well, if by okay you mean heavily spiraling into ripper oblivion, then yes, I'm dandy," He said sarcastically.

"Kegs thing got passed out so I stole these," A voice comes from behind us, and I turn around to see Jesse, holding two red cups.

"Hey, it's the girl who wants to sleep with Maxfield," He said, pointing at me, and it was pretty obvious that he was drunk.

I blushed slightly as Caroline and Stefan gave me looks. "It's good to see you again too, Flyer Guy."

Caroline just shakes it off as she says to Jesse, "Do you mind just giving us a couple minutes?"

"Yeah," Stefan agreed. "It's probably a good idea, because I can sense from here that you have a paper cut at the bottom of your left hand and I want to rip your entire arm off."

Alarm bells go off as I whip my head and looked at Stefan in disbelief. "Dude!" I hissed.

Caroline went up to Jesse and compelled him to hide, and she'd find him later. He turned and walked off, and Caroline turned back around to face Stefan. "Look. I know that you are hungry but you don't do people, okay? It just doesn't end well."

"What about blood bags?" Stefan asked. "Do you have any blood bags?"

"Yes, in the car. Jules, give me a hand?" She asked, and the second we both turned around, Stefan had dipped.

"We are such idiots!" I exclaimed.

* * *

Caroline and I split up to find Stefan (since he most likely went after Jesse) and I heard muffled screams by the crypt that I had passed. I went running for it, and came to an abrupt stop at the sight of Stefan feeding heavily off of Jesse.

"Stefan!" I shouted after him. "Stefan, stop! Stefan!"

None of my calls were getting his attention. I turned around and shouted for Caroline, but by the time she gets here, it might be too late.

"Oh, what was that spell?!" I exclaimed, balling my hands into fists and banging them against my head. "Osh-oshalana?" I said uncertainly. Nothing happened. I brought my hands down, and shook them free of nerves. "Oshalana," I tried again, but again, nothing happened. I took a deep breath in, then I pointed my right hand leveled to Stefan's head, and took everything I was feeling, from being scared, to frustrated at Stefan, to anger at Stefan for feeding off of Jesse, and poured it all into my one hand as I screamed, "Oshalana!"

That sure did the trick. Stefan gasped in pain, and let Jesse drop to the ground as he unlatched his fangs from his neck. I stepped closer to him as I kept my focus, and he grasped the sides of his head as he screamed in pain.

Caroline walked in, and frowned at the sight of me and Stefan, which broke my concentration. Stefan fell to the ground, and Caroline went for Jesse as I went for Stefan. I grabbed him by the shoulders, and hauled him up. Still holding his shoulders, I spun him around so that he was facing me.

I'll admit it. I flinched when I saw his face. His eyes had black veins crawling under them, and his fangs were stained red with Jesse's blood. I shook it off before saying, "This is not you! I mean, you might not remember, and hell, I don't remember at all! But what I have figured out is that this person," I gesture to the mess that he made of Jesse. "Is not you. You are not this person. You've overcome this person so many times!"

"I have to go," Stefan says suddenly, and pushes my hands off of his shoulders.

"But-" I start, but he cuts me off.

"I have to leave," He says, and before I can protest, he zooms off.

"Stefan!" I called after him. I look behind me to see if Caroline has Jesse handled, and she nods at me before I go running after him.

I still felt pretty tingly from using my magic for the first time. I can't believe how weird and powerful it felt. And I haven't had any lessons. Maybe it was a spur of the moment, once in a lifetime thing.

Or maybe Qetsiyah was right, and I was a different kind of Traveler.

And that kind of scared me.

* * *

I eventually make my way to the Salvatore boarding house, where I run into Damon and Elena. We all walk into the living room, where Stefan was crouched in front of the fire.

"Stefan, there you are," Elena said as we walked in. "We've been looking everywhere for-"

Elena cuts herself off when she gets a good look at what Stefan's doing. I peek over her shoulder to see, and Stefan is burning his journals. But why?

"What are you doing there, brother?" Damon asked.

"Oh, you know," He said, tossing in another book. "Just tying up a few odds and ends."

"Sure you want to do that?" His brother asks.

"Well, I know what I don't want," Stefan answered, standing up and turning around to face us. "I don't want to be the person in those journals anymore," He started, glancing back at the burning books. "I don't want to live in this house. I don't want my brother's advice. I don't want to hear how I supported you, Elena." He leaned over, and picked up a duffle bag. "And I definitely don't want to continue this conversation."

"Stefan, wait-" Elena started.

"Don't worry," He waved her off. "I'm not gonna go on a ripper binge. Besides, Caroline said she'd call me every hour to make sure I was okay. And, I actually do trust her."

I'm not going to lie. His words cut me deep. Stefan didn't even look at me as he threw the bag over his shoulder and began walking out.

I couldn't think for a couple of seconds, but then I was moving. I was following him out the door.

"Stefan, wait," I said as soon as I stepped onto the porch. He was already at the bottom of the steps, but he turned around to face me.

"You don't trust me?" I asked him. "I've done nothing to you. Elena and Damon, I get, but why not me? I have done nothing to make you not want to trust me."

"You practically tore apart my mind," He reminded me.

"Yeah, to stop you from feeding off of my friend," I threw back in his face. I took a deep breath in. "Look. If you don't want to trust me, I'll somehow get it. But you should just know, that you have no reason to distrust me." And with that, I pushed past his shoulder and started walking back to Matt's place.

* * *

I opened the door, and shut it behind me as I rubbed my eyes, fighting the fatigue that was starting to overwhelm me. The house was dark and quiet, which is weird, because Matt always leaves the hall light on because he doesn't want us stumbling in the middle of the night, and he's always watching TV at this time of night.

Whatever. All I knew was that I am hungry and that I want to go to bed. I peeled off my jacket and began to hang it up in the closet. "What do you want to do for dinner, Matty? I'm thinking Chinese."

He doesn't answer, which is weird. "Okay, I am open to pizza," I said as I walk out of the hallway, and when I make it to the living room, the TV is off, the lights are dimmed, but Matt is sitting on the couch. "What, did you forget to pay the electrical bill?" I asked as I put the light up. When I did, I noticed the tears in Matt's eyes.

"Oh my God," I breathed as I ran over and sat next to him on the couch. "What happened? Matt, what's wrong?"

"It's Bonnie," He choked, not looking at me.

"What about Bonnie?" I asked uncertainly.

Matt finally turned his head to face me. "She's-she's _dead_, Jules."

"What?" I gasped. "She's not dead. She can't be dead! You said, you said that she had responded to your emails! She can't do that if she's dead."

"That was Jeremy," Matt explained. "He can see ghosts. Bonnie's been communicating with us through him all summer. She's dead."

"But she can't be," I sobbed, and I looked down at my wrist, where my friendship bracelet that Bonnie made for me when we were in the first grade sat. I made one for her, and we said that as long as we had those bracelets, we'd be friends forever.

Except forever didn't last as long as I'd hoped.

"Matty, she can't be dead!" I cried, and Matt pulled me into a tight hug as he began to cry too.

We tried comforting each other the best we could, but it wasn't exactly working. Bonnie was our best friend.

And we didn't notice that she was dead all summer long.

I mean, I guess I wouldn't have noticed anyways, but still!

* * *

We had the memorial for Bonnie the next day. We walked all the way into the middle of the woods, and surrounded a small tree stump. I won't lie, my heart sunk a bit over the fact that Stefan wasn't here. I mean, he might not remember Bonnie, but they were still friends.

The people who did attend were Jeremy, Elena, Damon, Caroline, Matt, and me, and we were all trying to support each other.

Jeremy went first, and laid a photograph on the stump. Caroline went second, and placed two black and red pompoms on the stump. She turned around, walked back, and stood beside me, trying not to cry. I knew what the pompoms meant to Caroline and Bonnie. They were both on the cheerleading squad.

Matt went next, and pulled out a whistle that he placed next to Caroline's pompoms. I also knew what the whistle meant. Matt and Bonnie were lifeguards during a summer. Matt came back over and stood next to me. I reached over and grabbed his hand, giving it a comforting squeeze, which he returned.

Elena went next, and she stumbled a bit as she placed her hand on the tree to keep herself from falling over. She took out a handful of feathers from a small bowl, and let her tears escape her as she let the feathers fall on to the tree stump. I don't know what the feathers mean, but if it's Elena, it probably meant a lot.

Elena turned around, and went right over to Caroline, wrapping her in a fierce hug as sobs racked her body. After Elena, I went.

My left hand shook as I moved it to my right wrist. I gently tugged off my bracelet, and place it on the tree stump, as sobs began to crawl up my throat.

* * *

_"Julie!" Bonnie's seven year old self giggled, running up to my house. "Look what I have!" _

_ "What?" I asked just as eagerly, coming down my porch as Bonnie's dad began talking to my parents._

_ She held up a kit. "It's a friendship bracelet maker! We should make some!"_

_ And for the next couple of hours, Bonnie and I made each other bracelets. We used each other's favourite colours, and favourite symbols. When we were done, we put them on each other's wrist._

_ "See?" She asked as we put them on. "Now, we'll be best friends forever, as long as we have these bracelets."_

_ "Forever?" I asked uncertainly. At the time I didn't think you could have a friend for that long._

_ Bonnie giggled as she leaned over and grabbed me into a hug. "Forever."_

* * *

I turned around, and went right to Matt, missing what Damon was putting on the stump. I pulled Matt into a hug, and sobbed into his shoulder, wanting so bad to repress the memory. I carefully pull away from Matt, and moved my hand to grasp his again. I looked over at Caroline, who was extending her other hand. I took it without thinking, squeezing it.

Jeremy leaned over, and grabbed the bell that was on the stump. "We ring this bell, in honour of Bonnie."

Okay, Jeremy needed to stop right now before I just dropped to the ground and cried harder than I already was.

"And in rememberance for her," He continued, before giving the bell a gentle ring. And then, he looked confused. "I don't know what else to say."

He was quiet for a while, before he spoke again. "She says that she's not going anywhere. That she has been here all along. Bonnie, has watched you have the summer of your lives." Jeremy turned specifically to Elena. "She saw you happy. And she knows that you think now you can't have a normal life, that you have to be here for everyone, but you don't. Everyone will find their way. So you are going to repack your things, and you are going to go back to college, and you're gonna live it up." Elena just cried even harder.

Jeremy's gaze turned to Matt. "You didn't do anything wrong, Matt. You know she would have sent you back three hundred emails, if she could." Which just made Matt cry harder, and I leaned into his side to try and comfort him. "She misses you."

Jeremy shifted his gaze from Matt to me. "Juliet. She's watched you all summer long as you fought as hard as you could to rejoin your family and friends. And she knows that you're having a really hard time-maybe even harder than everyone else-but she knows that you're gonna fight it, like you do with everything. You're going to get better. You always find a way to make everything better."

Bonnie's words completely shatter my heart, and tears come flooding down at an even faster rate. I feel weak at the knees, and I had to cling on to Matt to keep myself from actually falling to the ground. But while Bonnie's words break me, they actually help make me stronger.

Jeremy turned his head to Caroline. "Caroline. She watched you decorate your dorm like your life depended on it," He conveyed, which actually made Caroline laugh through her tears, but they brought on another wave of them. "And she knows that college isn't everything you expected and that you feel like something's missing, but..." Jeremy cut himself off as his gaze falls behind Caroline. "Tyler."

We all turned around, and saw our other friend, Tyler Lockwood, a white rose in his hand. Caroline sobbed, before running towards him. They fell into a hug, which lasted a couple seconds before Caroline brought Tyler over to our memorial. He placed the rose on the stump with the rest of everyone's pieces for Bonnie, before going back and hugging Caroline.

I looked over and saw Damon's arms wrapped around Elena, Tyler's arms wrapped around Caroline, and I looked at me and Matt hugging each other, when something hit me.

Jeremy hadn't had a hug.

Bonnie was everyone's friend, but she was Jeremy's girlfriend. They shared a bond that none of us could have with her. And he's been sitting all summer with the knowledge that Bonnie was dead, and he couldn't even tell anyone.

Which is why I unwrapped myself from Matt, and made my way over to my little brother before winding my arms around his neck, bringing him in close. "You're so brave, Jer. So brave," I whispered in his ear. After I pulled away, I turned around, and we all stood as we mourned and remembered Bonnie Bennett.

Student.

Witch.

Girlfriend.

Daughter.

_Friend_.

* * *

**TBC...**

**Not so happy with this chapter, I'll admit. Oh well. At least we got to see Jules using her Traveler magic for the first time. Too bad it was on Stefan.**

**Anyways, not much to report, other than the fact that the NOLA AU is now under way! Yeah, we'll just see how this goes lol.**

**REVIEW! FOLLOW! FAVOURITE! THANKS! STAY TUNED!**


	5. Monster's Ball

**Disclaimer: **I don't own the Vampire Diaries! I just own my OC, Juilet Jordan Gilbert, and any other characters I make up along the way!

**Author's Note: **Okay, for the Julie and Stefan AU, with what I'm planning, it's going to be a REALLY LONG CHAPTER, because I want to include all the aspects of their human lives together. That being said, I don't know if you guys would want to read such a long chapter. So there are three things I could do.

1. Make it all one really long chapter.

2. Make a separate story document for it.

3. Make the AU into separate chapters (but it'll be a bit until we get back into proper episodes lol)

I know it's a good deal away but please let me know! I'm making a poll for it, so please vote! It's going to up until the chapter before the AU happens!

PS. If you want, you can recommend me songs that remind you of Juliet and Stefan (I know we haven't explored much of their relationship yet, but when we get into the later chapters you can!)

**Enjoy!**

* * *

Well, we did what Bonnie wanted us to do.

We moved on.

Well, sort of. For a couple days or so, I stayed back in Mystic Falls with Matt (I said it was for me, but it was mainly for him. Also, Tyler had taken up what seemed like permanent residence in our dorm, and I wasn't here for that ), but then I packed my bags and went back to Whitmore, where I threw myself as hard as I could into my studies.

In fact, I had barely even noticed that it was Halloween. That is, until Caroline reminded me. In the rudest way possible.

"You are _going _to that ball, Juliet Gilbert!" Caroline demanded in a harsh whisper. We were sitting in the library, because I was studying, and Caroline finally took a break from Tyler to come and find me.

"Caroline, people that go to costume dances are people in relationships because they coordinate their costumes," I told her. "I don't know if you've noticed, but I'm not in a relationship. I don't want to go to a place by myself surrounded by couples."

"Then don't go by yourself! Ask someone!" She exclaimed, which got her a "Shh" from the librarian.

Caroline gave me a look that said that she wanted to continue the conversation elsewhere, so I packed up my stuff and we walked out of the library.

"Who am I supposed to ask?" I inquired. "Just because I'm a technical witch now, doesn't mean that I can make like Sabrina Spellman and literally _make _myself a date."

"And I'm not asking you to," Caroline said. She suddenly squealed, grabbing on to my arm. "You should ask Stefan!"

That made me stop in my tracks. "What? No way, Caroline!"

"Why not?" She pouted. "He's single, you're single, and you're friends! It wouldn't make it weird."

I think of him as way more than a friend, Care Bear. "I tried to fry the guy's brain!"

"To get him to stop eating our friend!" She threw back. "And he's already forgiven you for it. Now, will you please ask Stefan?"

I could tell she's not going to drop this, so I groaned. "Ugh, fine! If you leave me alone, I'll ask him."

She claps. "Yay! Okay, I'll pick your costume."

"What?" I asked her, but she was already scampering off. "Caroline!" I groaned, and balled my hands into fists before crashing them on my forehead.

Time to go ask the amnesic boy that I might be in love with to a dance.

* * *

"So you know that lame, ball, thing, that Whitmore is holding?" I said into the phone. After a half hour of debating with myself (and an hour long conversation with Klaus, who finally convinced me to do it), I called up Stefan.

"Yeah, Caroline's been trying to get me to go to it," He answered.

"So, I was thinking. I'm an amnesic, you're an amnesic." Wow, why am I so bad at this?

"And your point is?"

"Well, we were best friends, apparently. Neither of us can remember anything about each other. So, this might be a good opportunity to maybe get to know each other again, especially if we trusted each other so much."

"So you're saying you want me to be your date?" He asked.

I flushed slightly pink, grateful that he couldn't see me. "I'm saying that I don't want to go alone, especially when lots of other couples are gonna be there. So if you want to call yourself my date, that's fine. Just come with me."

"Hmm," Stefan thought. "Will there be dancing?"

"It's a dance," I said. "I think dancing is part of the package."

"Will _we_ have to dance?"

"If you don't want to, then we won't. I'm only going to get Caroline off of my back," I told him.

"But do _you_ want to dance?"

I bit my lip a little, debating my answer. "I like to dance," I say softly.

"Then we'll dance. What time should I be there?"

A huge smile crossed my face. "Um, 7:00 good for you?"

"It's perfect for me. I'll see you at 7:00."

Stefan hangs up, and my smile turned into a full on grin. Stefan is my date! Stefan is my date! Stefan is my date!

Now it's time to see what Caroline is planning.

* * *

I couldn't conceal my laughs as I walked into the Whitmore house. Caroline has a sense of humour, and I'm glad that she does.

I quickly found Stefan, and it already looked like he was slightly buzzed. "Who are you supposed to be?" I asked. He did not look like he was wearing a costume.

"Oh," He said, looking down at his costume. "I'm James Dean." His eyes scan my outfit. "And you are?"

I blush slightly as I look down at my perfect ringlets and olden timey (older than the Victorian era) dress. "I'm Juliet Capulet. Who else was I gonna be?"

"Right," He said, nodding his head. "Juliet Gilbert."

"You know, we apparently used to have this joke where you called me Capulet, and I would call you Montague or Romeo."

Stefan looked confused. "Why?"

I shrug. "It has to do with the very first time that we met."

"You'll have to tell me about it some day," He said, and extended his hand. "But first, we must dance."

I laughed as Stefan lead me over to the dance floor. For an amnesic, he has very good dancing skills.

I had to go to the bathroom, so Stefan told me that he would be waiting for me at the bar. I quickly went and did my business (NOT an easy thing in this dress) and by the time I came back, I couldn't find Stefan. Like, _anywhere_.

So I wandered over to the bar, where Stefan told me he would meet me. "Give me anything you got." I slumped on the counter.

"Looks like someone's got a case of the blues," I heard beside me, and I spun my head around to see Qetsiyah. "Why is that?"

"You," was all I could say at first.

"Yes, me," She said. "Qetsiyah. But call me Tessa."

"I'd rather call you the girl that fried my friend's brain and took away his memories," I spat out.

She turned her head to the side. "Sorry about that. But look on the bright side!"

"What bright side?" I asked as the bartender gave me my drink.

Tessa thought about it. "There really isn't one, is there?"

I tossed the drink back, before giving it back to the bartender to refill. "Not that I know of."

It was silent for a few seconds until I blurted out, "What's so special about my blood?"

"There it is," Tessa said as she took a sip of her own drink.

I ignored her as I went on. "Why did you use my family's blood for the Immortality spell? Did you kill them?"

She spun her head my way, a furious look on her face. "I would never harm the Christos family. Believe it or not, your maternal ancestor, Helena Christos, was my best friend, who happily gave me her blood to use."

"If she was a Traveler, she would have been against Immortality," I said, remembering what my diary had said about Tessa. "Isn't that why the Travelers killed you?"

"I didn't tell her," Tessa said simply.

"Oh yeah, you guys were such great friends," I said as I drank the contents of my now refilled glass. I gave it back to have more. I was enjoying the buzz.

"Why is my blood special?" I demanded.

"You are a Christos Traveler," She told me.

"And what's so special about being a Christos?" I asked. "I mean, I've searched up Christos so many times-"

"Oh honey," Tessa interrupted. "You are not going to find the history of the Christos Travelers on Google."

"Then where?" I asked. "Bing?"

"Books," She explained. "Books passed down by families."

"Isn't that perfect?" I groaned, taking my now filled glass back. "I'm adopted. And my house burnt to the ground." I got an idea. I turned my head to Tessa. "Why don't you just tell me?"

"I would," She said. "But I have my own agenda tonight. I wouldn't be at a college party voluntarily."

"Come on!" I protested. "After taking my blood-and _not_ keeping your end of the deal, by the way-you owe me this."

"I owe you nothing," She said, shaking her head. "I already saved you."

"When?" I asked, giving her a look.

"At the end of June," Tessa revealed. "I'm the reason you're alive."

"What?" I exclaimed. "What do you mean?"

Tessa rolled her eyes. "I'm here because your friend Bonnie dropped the veil. After she did so, I saw you on the ground at the top of the hill. I knew right away that you were a Christos Traveler, and that I needed you alive if I wanted my plans to go smoothly. So, I did a spell to bring you back from the brink of death. Now, I had just come back to life, so I wasn't strong enough to bring you all the way back, so I had to put you-"

"Into a coma," I finished for her.

She gave me a smile. "Bingo. Sorry for just leaving you there, by the way. I knew someone was gonna find you."

I'm not listening though. Tessa is the reason that I'm alive right now? I'm a living, breathing person because of Qetsiyah?

"I see you have to process this," Tessa said. She turned to the bartender. "Could we get some shots over here?"

* * *

I quickly downed my sixth shot. Tessa was somehow faster than me, though. "Not fair!" I protested. "You've been dead for the past two thousand years. How are you a better drinker than me?"

"I don't know," She said.

"You know, I love what you're doing," I said, taking back another shot.

"What?"

"Screwing Silas over! It's a very good idea. Did you know the guy tricked me into thinking that he was Stefan? I got my feelings hurt!"

"That is not good."

"Nope. So send me an invitation to Silas's funeral. I'm going to be the one throwing flowers at his grave." I looked around me. "So I've been officially ditched."

"I know the feeling."

"And we've both been ditched by two different people with the same face."

"It's a bitch, isn't it?"

I sighed, putting my head in my hand. "Regular Stefan doesn't want me, and Amnesic Stefan doesn't want me." I scoffed. "That's gotta be a new one. Ditched by the same guy twice. Sort of. What kind of label is that?"

"I'm not even sure," Tessa said.

"What did I do wrong, Tessa?" I said. "With him, it was always Elena. And I don't even know why! She's not that good looking!"

"You're telling me!" Tessa agreed. "Amara looked just like her. And she was a cheating slut."

"That's another thing Elena and Amara have in common," I commented, knocking my shot glass with Tessa's.

"But seriously, Juliet," Tessa started. "This is a college party. There must be someone you can find to dance with."

There _is_ one person that I have not seen since I came back...

A grin crossed my face as I pushed myself off of the bar. "I'll see you later!" I called back to Tessa. "I won't be able to drive, so take me home."

I kept scanning the crowd (not an easy task when you're drunk) but I finally spot the face that I've been looking for, and push past people to get to him.

"If it isn't Juliet Gilbert," Wes said once I got to him.

"If it isn't Doctor Good-Looking," I slurred. "Oops," I said, my hand going on to my mouth as I fought to keep my giggle in. "That's my secret name for you. You're not supposed to know it."

Wes laughed. "I prefer Doctor Jekyll, but Doctor Good-Looking works too." He looked me up and down. "And you are clearly drunk."

"And drunk me is the best dancer," I revealed, taking his hands to lead him to the dance floor. Screw Stefan! I don't need him to have a good time!

He hesitated. "What?" I asked. "Are you going to deny Juliet Capulet a dance?" I asked, before leaning in dangerously close to Wes's lips. "There is a reason I am the most famous literary lover, Mr. Maxfield."

Wes grabbed my hand, swirling me around before pulling me in close to him, my arm automatically wrapping around his neck so that I don't fall over. We were so close, in fact, that our noses were touching. "That is _Doctor _Maxfield, Capulet. That is the very first lesson that I taught you, remember?"

"Umhmm," I nodded. I leaned even closer to him. "And exactly _how_ many lessons do you have to teach me-" Now our lips were almost touching. "_Doctor_ Maxfield?"

Wes just smirked before spinning me again. "You are so drunk."

"And this is so inappropriate," I giggled. I mean, he was a teacher!

"But I'm not _your_ teacher, remember?" Wes asked, reffering back to our last conversation. "So that makes it okay. I don't know if I prefer you as my student or not."

"Well, _I _definitely know that I don't prefer you as my teacher," I said as we swayed.

"Interesting to know," He said, spinning me out, then back in. He tilts his head so that his mouth is beside my ear, and his breath tickles my ear as he whispers, "Listen," He said, his tone of voice very quickly changing the playful tone of our conversation to a very serious one. "There are people at this school that are watching your sister and her friends, and asking questions that you don't want them to ask, if you want to keep them safe."

My body went sort of stiff. The serious tone of the situation did nothing to kill my buzz. I was already too drunk. He pulled away from my ear so that he was facing me again, and he squeezed our interlocked hands.

"You can stay, if you want. They're not suspecting anything of you, because you're just a human." Wes was speaking, but all I could pay attention to were his lips. Was this a bad thing? "You have to tell your sister and your friends to pack their things, drop out, and move back to Mystic Falls."

I half register what he's saying. His lips are the perfect shape! "Why are you telling me?"

Wes brought me a little closer. "Because I'd figured that it'd be easier to tell you."

"Why, am I your favourite student?" I said seductively.

"One, you're technically not my student, and two, I don't have favourite students," He informed me.

"Really?" I asked, and he nodded. "Would I be your favourite if I did, say, this?"

I took Wes by surprise, wrapping my arms around his neck and finally closed the gap between us, planting a soft kiss right on his mouth. And it was better than I imagined!

I was probably going to be expelled for this, but whatever!

I felt Wes kiss back slightly, before I pulled back. A very pleased expression crossed my face as I saw Wes flush a dark red again.

"Am I your favourite now?" I asked.

Wes takes my arms off of his neck, and I pouted. "You need to sober up."

My shoulders slouch. "That's it? No, 'that was the best kiss in the world', or 'kiss me again, Juliet'?" Great! Not even Doctor Good-Looking wants me now!

"Go find your friends, Juliet," He said. I was slightly disappointed that he didn't want to go find a closet to make out in, but he did take my hand and kissed the back of it. "And have a good night." Then he turned around, and he was gone.

I huffed. Why do I have the worst luck in the world?

Well, not the _worst_ luck. I did score with Klaus, didn't I?

I found my way back to the bar, and decided to drink until someone was hot. Unfortunately, that required me to get very drunk. Not many people were left at the party, and no one was cute. Stefan was still gone, and Tessa had disappeared too. I didn't know where Elena and Damon, or Caroline and Tyler were.

I had the best friends in the world.

I considered taking my phone out and calling Matt, but he was probably having fun with his own friends. And then I considered calling Klaus, but knowing him, he's busy with New Orleans drama, and if he heard that I was sad, would take the next flight to Mystic Falls. Not even, he would _run _here if he had to.

So I kept drinking. And drinking. And drinking. I am probably going to get alcohol poisoning. Maybe it's time to stop.

My mind went from Wes, to my friends, then finally to Stefan. He ditched me less than an hour into the party! He could have at least waited until the full hour.

I felt a tap on my shoulder, and by this time, I was so drunk I couldn't even _think_ straight, let alone _see_. So I thought the person in front of me, was Stefan.

And Drunk Me did not hold back.

"So you're finally back, huh?" I asked, turning around. "While you were flaunting about, I was sitting here practically drinking myself to death! I didn't really want to be here Stefan, and I knew that you didn't want to be either. You could have just told me, and I could have gone back to my dorm and done more studying. And if you were having such a sucky time with me, you could have just told me instead of ditching me. I would have been more okay with that!"

"Juliet, calm down-"

"I don't want to calm down!" I said. "I just-I don't know what I want. But it's not to calm down."

A hand grabs my arm. "Let's just get you out of here before you pass out. You're barely on your feet!"

"That is not true!" I said, but it totally was. I was stumbling all over the place. I took one step, and fell right into Stefan's arms. Though it didn't feel like Stefan's arms.

I finally let myself focus properly, and managed to make out a face. And it wasn't Stefan's.

Before I had a chance to say anything, I passed right out, my head falling on top of the person's chest.

* * *

**TBC...**

**I just really want the Silas chapter episodes done with, so this wasn't that long. I did like it, though! **

**I LOVED the Julie/Wes interaction! She kissed him! I have so much fun writing them omg. Originally, they were supposed to kiss, but you can thank the Doctor's Charlene for that!**

**We also got some pre-coma Juliet information! Tessa was the one to save her! Tessa saves everyone, doesn't she?**

**So! Next up, Handle with Care. Pretty excited for that one, actually. We get more Juliet revelations, and more Juliet and Tessa, which I actually love writing. I'm liking their friendship.**

**Anyways, it's 1 AM where I am, and I have school in the morning, so adios!**

**REVIEW! FOLLOW! FAVOURITE! THANKS! STAY TUNED!**


	6. Handle With Care

**Disclaimer: **I don't own the Vampire Diaries! I just own my OC, Juilet Jordan Gilbert, and any other characters I make up along the way!

**Author's Note:** Can I just say that I'm so happy about all the follows and favourites that I have for this story? You guys make me so happy!

So I've made the poll for the AU! Please vote!

* * *

**Enjoy!**

_"Don't bother," Elena's voice called out. "I'm not there."_

_ Stefan and I both immediately spin around and stood up, Stefan pushing me behind him slightly so that I was standing behind him._

_ "Silas," He breathed._

_ Elena-or Silas- smiled at us. _

_ "You were stone," Stefan said. "We saw you, the spell worked!"_

_ "That's the funny thing about spells," Silas said. "They're bound by nature. And nature, demands balance, so every spell has a loophole. The spell that turned me into stone, was bound by a witch. A _living_ witch. When that witch died, the spell broke."_

_ "What?" I demanded, my insides tying up. Bonnie wasn't dead. She's not dead!_

_ "Bonnie?" Stefan asked. "Bonnie's not dead." _

_ Thank you, Stefan!_

_ "Doesn't matter," Silas dismissed. "And here's when the mystery of me comes full circle. _I_ created the Immortality spell two thousand years ago. I can never die. So nature, had to find a balance. A version of me that could die. A shadow self."_

_ This does not sound good. Shadow self? What the hell is he talking about?_

_ "A doppelganger."_

_ Oh. Well, then._

_ "So this is finally your real face?" Stefan questioned. "You're another one of them?"_

_ "Not exactly," Silas mused, and I swear my eyes were closed for only two seconds when I blunk, and the figure in front of me wasn't Elena anymore._

_ It was the man that I was in love with._

_ Stefan._

_ "Hello, my shadow self," Silas said to his doppelganger._

_ I was still trying to wrap my head around this. Silas is Stefan's doppelganger? Or, the other way around? This is why we should have left Mystic Falls first._

_ Before I had the chance to say anything, Silas grabbed my throat, and launched me to the other side of us. I yelped as my body hit a tree, hard, and an aching pain spread through my body. I felt a crack in my side, and a pulsing pain. I might have broken something. My head banged on the ground, and I had to fight through the dizziness to actually see._

_ Silas stabbed Stefan right in the gut. I think I tried calling out for him, but I let out a rough scream instead._

_ I tried getting up, but with the pain in my side, it wasn't going to work out. So instead, I began dragging myself towards them, but Silas had already dumped Stefan's body into the safe that Silas was supposed to be in. _

_ "Stefan," I cried out weakly as Silas pushed the safe off of the cliff, and it fell into the quarry._

_ Silas turned around, and I realized how bad the situation was. I was alone, injured, with Silas. I am so dead._

_ He sauntered over to me. He looked exactly like Stefan. _

_ But by the evil look in his eye, I could tell the difference._

_ Silas loomed over me, before he reached down and grabbed me by the throat. I struggled to breathe as he lifted me in the air. I panted as I fought back my screams._

_ "Now, what to do with you?" Silas pondered aloud._

_ "Why did you do that to Stefan?" I choked out._

_ "Well, it's going to be kind of hard pretending to be him if he's running around."_

_ "Why do you want to pretend to be Stefan?" I gasped._

_ "It's all part of the plan, kid," He told me, and I bit back my scream as he choked me harder. "Unfortunately, it's not a plan that you'll be able to see."_

_ Seemingly out of nowhere, Silas pulled a knife out before plunging it right into my neck._

_ This time, I screamed. I screamed as loud as my lungs would allow me. Silas took the knife out, and I immediately started becoming extra dizzy from the blood lost._

_ Silas's eyes trailed hungrily down the steady flow of blood spurting from my neck down my clothes. "You know, it would be a shame to let your blood go wasted."_

_ And without another word, Silas's mouth was on my neck, and I screamed as if my life depended on it as he drained the life out of me. I began getting weaker and weaker, and my knees kept dropping closer and closer to the ground. Eventually, he unlatched his teeth from my neck, and I flopped right to the ground, with no strength to even move. I just laid there, my eyes fixated on the spot where Stefan used to be standing. _

_ I faintly hear the sound of an engine, and then I just assume that Silas has left. What I was more concerned about where the sound of my heartbeats. They were slower._

_ My eyes fluttered shut as my heart crept towards its last beat..._

* * *

Hands at my throat, I took a deep gasp in as I bolted up, and then I immediately winced at the pain in my head. Damn hangovers.

"Ohhhh," I groaned, covering my eyes with my hand. I flopped back, and realized that I was sitting in a chair, still dressed as Juliet Capulet. There was a small pillow behind me, and a blanket thrown over top of me. I finally cracked my eyes open enough to realize that I wasn't at my dorm. Or my house. Or at the boarding house. I was at...

"Good, you're up," Tessa whispered as she walked past me. I was about to say something, but she put a finger to her lip and gestured over to the couch that she had in the cabin. I looked over, and Stefan was fast asleep. She winced at the look on my face. "I knew you drank a lot last night, but I didn't know just how much."

"What even happened last night?" I groaned as I sat up.

Tessa sat down next to me. "Too much to recount. You told me that you didn't want to drive home drunk, so I just brought you here." I eyed the bowl of berries and the glass in her hands. "Isn't that what friends are for? Taking their drunk friends home to sober up?" She asked as she held out a glass of something to me.

I looked from Tessa, to the glass, then back to Tessa as I took it. "You're right."

"Drink that. It'll make you feel better."

I put the glass to my lips to drink it.

"Just be mindful of-"

And I spit most of it right back up. That was the most disgusting thing I have ever tasted in my life! And I've eaten hospital food!

"The taste."

Our noises were enough to wake Stefan up. He looked at us, a bit confused.

"Morning, sleepyhead," Tessa said as she walked over to sit next to Stefan on the couch. "Sleep well?"

"Hey, Tessa. Hey, Julie," He greeted to the both of us.

"You're confused," Tessa commented. "Is that the amnesia, or the tequila?"

"A little of both, actually," Stefan said. "I'm still trying to piece together last night."

"We bonded over our misery," Tessa told him. "There were body shots. The misery lifted." She handed Stefan the bowl. "Here, berries."

"I'm confused," I said, lifting my hand up. "What was I doing last night?"

"Well, you did quite a number of things before I managed to bring you here. And then I had to keep your paws off of the tequila so that you wouldn't get alcohol poisoning," Tessa told me.

"Right," I said, leaning back on the chair. As much as I hated it, my hangover was actually getting better because of whatever Tessa gave me to drink. So I just pinched my nose and downed the rest of it as Stefan and Tessa kept talking.

"What's got you in such a good mood?" Stefan questioned.

"I happened to see a text message pop up on your phone after you crashed last night," Tessa explained as she popped a berry in her mouth. "Warning from your friends. Silas took the cure. He's a witch!"

Stefan and I didn't look to enthusiastic about it, so Tessa continued. "He's mortal. That means I, get to kill him." She gleefully tapped Stefan's leg. "Get up, gorgeous! Your doppelganger dies today!"

Tessa got up and walked over to the table in the room. "Silas is looking for the Anchor. It's the object I used when to bind the spell when I created the Other Side." She began fiddling with a vase of flowers. "Destroy it, and the spell is broken. No more supernatural limbo. And Silas can find peace. I'd rather his lying, cheating ass, not have that."

"Good for you," I said, pointing to Tessa. "Fight the power."

"Where is it?" Stefan asked.

"New Jersey," She answered, and then she filled Stefan and I in on what we missed last night.

"So, Silas just read your mind to find out where the Anchor is," I clarified. Why did it always seem like these people where looking for something? "What happens now?"

"You know that old, ancient story that I told you about the Travelers?" Tessa asked, but I guess the story was more directed to Stefan. Tessa paused. "Oh wait, I fried your brains and took your memories away, sorry."

Stefan just nodded, and Tessa continued. "So the Travelers-wait. You know how Silas wants to destroy the Other Side so that he can be at peace with that slut Amara that he calls his one true love?" She didn't wait for an answer. "The Travelers don't want that."

"Why not?" Stefan asked.

"Not important," Tessa dismissed. She took the vase in her hands and walked over to us. "Scratch that-_very_ important. I'm just not going to answer it," She said as she put the vase down on the table.

Tessa grabbed the tequila bottle to put away, but Stefan took it from her grasp before she could. "You know, I think I still need to be drunk to understand this story."

He poured some into a shot glass as Tessa went on. "The Travelers have been in possession of the Anchor for two thousand years. They constantly move it so that it doesn't fall into the wrong hands. And they're not going to let him get near it. At least, not before I kill him."

I got up from my spot on the chair to go and grab the bowl of berries. I crashed onto the couch next to Stefan as I popped a handful in my mouth and relished at the sweet taste.

"What happens if they fail, and Silas gets to it?" I asked.

Tessa scoffed as she turned to face us. "He won't destroy it. He won't be able to."

"Why not?" Stefan asked.

Tessa thought for a second. "Let's just file that under the 'not going to answer' category."

"Well, the good thing about amnesia is that I don't remember how I got into the middle of all this," Stefan said as he began to lie back down. I scootched over a little so that he could stretch his legs.

Tessa laughed as she walked over to him. "Rest easy, sweetpea. Don't you worry about the details. Silas _is_ going to die today. And he will spend eternity on the Other Side as far away from Amara-and peace-as possible."

She got up, and walked over to the front door. "I got it all covered. You don't scheme as long as I have without considering every possibility."

With that, she turned to walk out the door, but something stopped her. She made an "oomph" sound as she was pushed backwards.

I stood up to walk over to her. "What's wrong?"

Tessa slammed her fist against some sort of invisible force field. She groaned as she turned around and slammed the door shut. "Silas put a spell on this cabin. We're stuck here until sundown."

"How do you know that?" Stefan asks.

Tessa looks ready to kill herself as she says, "Because I taught him the damn spell."

* * *

Well, if we were going to be stuck inside a cabin until sundown, I didn't want to be dressed as Juliet Capulet. My headache now faded away, I asked Tessa to borrow some clothes so that I could take a shower. She lent me a stripped black and white sundress that was miraculously my size, and I quickly jumped into the shower so I could wipe off all of Juliet Capulet-so that I was Juliet Gilbert again.

I pinned my still wet hair up into a messy bun before slipping the dress on. I opened the door to walk out, and came face to face with Stefan.

"Hey," He said.

"Hi," I managed.

"Look, Tessa told me that you think I ditched you last night at Whitmore," He rushed out.

I crossed my arms. "Well, we danced for less than an hour before you went over to the open bar, and by the time I came back from the bathroom, you were nowhere to be seen. So I'm sorry if my mind immediately went to ditching." I held up a finger and let a fake smile cross my face. "Watch as I reenact what you did last night." My fake smile dropped and I attempted to push past him.

Stefan grabbed my arm, stopping me. My lips stretched and formed a tight line as he began talking. "I just wanted to let you know that I didn't ditch you last night. Damon took me to Silas, and then he kept snapping my neck so Silas could get into Tessa's head. I wouldn't ditch you. Besides," He said, an actual smile creeping on his face. "I was having fun."

I let my facial muscles relax. "I guess if you didn't ditch me, then you're forgiven." I pointed a threatening finger in his direction. "But if you ever leave me alone at a party ever again, I will kill you. I drank myself stupid last night."

"Yeah, Tessa told me that you kissed that teacher."

Wait.

_What_?

"_What_?" I exclaimed in disbelief. "I kissed Wes?!" My fingers flew to my lips as I pushed past Stefan to get the real story from Tessa.

I stormed into the kitchen area, where she was cooking something. "You let me kiss Doctor Maxfield?"

Tessa looked from me, then to the pan on the stove, before grabbing a plate and offering it to me. "Bacon?"

I grabbed the plate and set it down on the table angrily-though I still do intend to eat it. "You let me kiss Doctor Maxfield?!" I repeated.

"In my defense, I didn't know you were going after your teacher," Tessa defended.

"He's not my teacher," I found myself saying. I groaned, before balling my hands into fists and slamming them on my forehead. "Stupid! Stupid stupid stupid! I'm never going to be able to look the guy in the eyes anymore!"

"At least you got to kiss someone," Tessa offered. "And you were really drunk. I'm sure he's just passing it off as you being a horny drunk."

"God, what else did I say to him?" I thought aloud. I racked my brain for the memories, but it seemed like all that alcohol seemed to wash away all of my memories from last night in one big wave.

I am _so_ done with alcohol. Matt was right.

"Look, don't worry about it now," Tessa said as she put her hand on my arm and guided me to the table. She sat me down in the chair as she went over and grabbed a plate, putting scrambled eggs and bacon on it. "You just have a little something to eat, okay?"

I slammed my head on the table in front of me as Tessa sat the plate in front of me. The aroma of bacon brought my head right back up, and I dug in, happy to have something inside my stomach. "Thank you," I said to Tessa when I took a break from shoveling food into my mouth.

She smiled, and patted my arm. "You're welcome." She walked towards the table, and I just stuck in my headphones as I ate.

I quickly finished, and put my dish in the sink. I was just pulling out my headphones when I actually saw what Tessa was doing.

She was on Stefan's phone, for some reason. "Who were you talking to?" I asked when she hung up.

"Oh, it was just a wrong number," She smirked.

"Okay, then." I shrugged as I went and sat down on the couch. I had texted Caroline earlier and told her that Wes knew that she and Elena were vampires (strangely the only thing that I remembered from last night) and Caroline texted me back saying that she had started packing up her stuff. I told her to just start packing mine too, but Caroline said that just because she and Elena were being threatened didn't mean that I had to suffer with them. She somehow convinced me to stay at Whitmore.

Though I am going to need a map to avoid Wes at all costs.

"So," I said, settling into the couch. "Tell me more about Christos Travelers."

"Oh, all right," Tessa said, coming to sit down next to me. "Well, Helena Christos, your ancestor, was my best friend. She helped me create the Immortality spell. Well, indirectly."

"Using her blood," I clarified, and Tessa nodded. "How? What is so special about Christos blood?"

"It's difficult to explain," She told me. "After Silas and I, the Christos family were the most powerful family of Travelers. So when the Traveler curse was placed on them, they were able to resist most of the effects."

"Most of them?" I repeated.

"Yes, most of them," She said. "They can call on some forces of nature, but it doesn't work as strong as it should."

"And you said that my blood made spells and stuff stronger," I said, and she nodded.

"Because your family resisted the Traveler curse, your blood is stronger than other Travelers."

I sighed as I sunk back into the couch. "That is a lot ot digest."

"I know," Tessa said, patting my knee affectionately. "Wait, I might have something that will interest you." She gets up, and walks over to a bookshelf. She scans the shelf until she finds what she's looking for. She pulls out a rather large book, and comes back with it. "Here," She said, holding it out to me.

I take it out of her hands, blowing the dust off of it. "What is it?"

"It's a spell book," She answered, sitting back down next to me. "There's a lot more on there than what you'd find on Google or Bing. I thought you might be interested."

I looked from the book to Tessa. "You know, I have just woken up, and I already feel like going back to sleep. I'm that overwhelmed by all of this."

"You just go back to sleep if you need to," Tessa said, patting my shoulder.

"I might take you up on that offer," I said, putting the heavy book down on the coffee table before lying down properly on the couch. It was about time for my after breakfast nap.

* * *

I only had my eyes closed for about fifteen minutes, when there was a knock at the door. I sat up on the couch so that I could get up and answer it, but Tessa got to the door before me. So I just laid back on the couch, but then I heard her say, "If it isn't Stefan's fated love."

"Where is he?" Elena's voice demanded, and I had to fight back my shiver at the thought of Silas, and him drinking me dry.

"Come in," Tessa said, opening the door more. "Who am I to stand in the way of destiny."

Elena just eyed Tessa carefully as she walked inside, and she actually stopped in her steps when she sees me. "Julie?"

"What?" I demanded, a little offended at the tone in her voice.

"What are you doing _here_?" She asked. "I thought you were back at the dorm with Caroline."

"Well, after I drunk myself stupid last night, I entrusted Tessa with my care," I said. "And she brought me here to sober up. And then I passed out."

"Actually, you passed out before I even brought you here," Tessa corrected.

Elena was about to say something, but stopped when she looked over my shoulder. I turned around to see Stefan, buttoning up his shirt. I swallowed the lump in my throat as I fought to keep my eyes away from his chest.

"Elena," Stefan said. "You shouldn't have walked through that door."

"I'm really sorry," She apologized. For what, though? Being a bitch? "I wouldn't have let Damon do what he did to you-"

"Sure you would have," Stefan cut her off. "You have an annoying tendancy to do whatever he tells you to."

My hand goes to my mouth to conceal my laugh. That was the best thing I have ever heard out of Stefan's mouth. And this was _amnesia _Stefan. Why did only amnesia Stefan recognize Elena's bullshit?

"I'm no shrink," Tessa spoke up. "But I think it's called co-dependance."

Elena formed her lips into a thin line as she ignored Tessa. "Look. I get that you're upset with us, for pretty much _everything_. But do you really think that sleeping with Tessa-" She whirled around and pointed at my friend before looking back at Stefan. "-Is gonna solve anything?"

Stefan gave Tessa a confused looked, and she just stood there innocently. "Who said I was sleeping with Tessa?"

This time it was Elena's turn to look confused, so she slowly turned to face Tessa. "I am so bad with messages," Tessa revealed. She held up Stefan's phone. "Oh look. Elena called. She's wondering why you're here. I _may_ have embelished for effect."

"Okay," Elena started. "I just came by to check that she hadn't done any sort of fatal attraction spell on you, but now that I know that you're good, I'm gonna go."

She turned around, and gave Tessa a death stare as she walked towards the door. Hang on, wasn't there something going on with the cabin? Something about not being able to...

Elena's body collided with the invisible force field in the doorway. Yeah, the cabin was enchanted. Confused, she tried walking out again, but it didn't work.

"Yeah, you really shouldn't have walked through the door," Stefan repeated, and Elena turned around to give Tessa another death glare.

Well my afternoon just got a whole lot more interesting.

* * *

Now that Elena had been taken hostage, Tessa took Stefan's phone to make a little phone call. "You ain't seen nothing yet," She said into the phone. "Since I am..._occupied_ at the moment, I need you to go ahead and kill Silas for me."

Elena, Stefan, and I all turned our heads in Tessa's direction. Elena had informed me that Silas was going to help us bring Bonnie back from the dead, and honestly, I was a bit skeptical that _Silas_-the man who had drained me of my blood-was going to help us.

"You mean after he destroys the Other Side?" Tessa asked whoever she was talking to. "Yeah, that's not going to happen. Besides, I want him _dead_ before he has the pleasure of finding the Anchor," She said, then waited for a second as the person on the other line spoke. "Kill him. _Now_," Tessa stressed.

"Damon-" Elena called out.

Oh, _that's_ who he's talking to.

"Did I mention that I lured your girlfriend here to me?" Tessa told Damon with delight. "I used the oldest trick in the book. Jealously. Of Stefan!" Tessa turned her head in his direction, and by now, we were all feeling awkward, Elena more than Stefan and I. "Thought you should know."

Elena rolled her eyes and turned around, but Tessa pointed a hand at her, and suddenly, she was on the ground, screaming in pain. Stefan went over to Elena to try and comfort her.

"Is that something more important than Elena?" Tessa asked Damon, never breaking focus. "Because Silas put a spell on this house, bounding it to the sun, so we're trapped here until sundown. Which means that you have until then to kill Silas, or I kill Elena." She stopped the assault on Elena, who gasped in relief. "With a face like Amara's, it might be cathartic. Bye now."

She quickly hung up, before giving the three of us a smile. "Who's hungry?"

* * *

With Elena here, things have gotten maybe ten times more boring. I was hoping to do a little more bonding with Stefan, but ever since Elena arrived, Tessa's been trying to make her jealous, and it was painfully obvious. Tessa sat on one side of Stefan, while I sat on the other. Tessa and Stefan were looking through a take out menu to find something to eat, while Elena sat all the way in the corner, feeling sorry for herself. As always.

As for me, I was looking through that spell book Tessa had given me. Sure, I couldn't understand a _word_ (it was all in Latin or something. I took French in high school. And look how well it did for me) but I enjoyed trying to decipher what some stuff meant. And any sort of distraction from around me is fine with me.

"Look at all the incredible things that they've dreamt up to do with food," Tessa said. "Pineapple on pizza?"

"It's actually pretty good," I commented.

Tessa looked over at me and smiled, then she looked at Elena, who literally had a cloud shouting "pity me" surrounding her. "Why so sad? Let me guess: gluten free?"

"How did you get here?" Elena mumbled.

"Excuse me?" Tessa asked, getting Elena to speak louder.

"_Here_. Alive, from the Other Side. How did you come back to life?" She clarified.

"Oh, yeah, that," Tessa said. "You can blame your friend Bonnie for that. She opened the door, and then distracted herself bringing your little brother back to life, and I just walked right through, when she died."

"Well today, Silas was going to bring her back to life after he got the Anchor," Elena informed her, and I'll admit it. I felt a pang at the realization that I may never see Bonnie again. But this is Mystic Falls. No one stays dead permanently, do they? "But you told my boyfriend, who has never put anyone's life before mine, including his own, to kill him before he could. So no, I'm not sad about the pizza."

The air is a bit tight until Stefan looked at me and Tessa. "Look, forget the pizza. What do you say, I make something?" He suggested.

"Okay," Tessa said, and I shrugged, agreeing. "Roasted duck?" She suggested.

"Wait, do you have a duck?" Stefan asked.

"No," Tessa said glumly. "Maybe we can lure one in." Louder, she said, "Got Elena in. How much smarter could a duck be?"

Tessa needs to stop before I do something completely inappropriate.

* * *

In an effort to try and make myself useful, I volunteered to help Stefan and Tessa cook. Stefan had be cut some veggies and stuff as he gave Tessa a taste of whatever he was cooking. She tasted it, and said that it was good, before she flirtatiously touched his back. It took everything in my to not just stab her with the knife.

Where did _that_ come from?

"Okay, I get it," Elena said, and the three of us turned around to face her. "You hate me," She said directly to Stefan.

Wow. Way to make everything about yourself, Elena. Self absorbed, much?

"You may not have any memories, Stefan, but I do. This person-" She turned her head to Tessa. "-She's not the sort of person you would like."

Tessa and I exchanged glances. "That's not very nice. Especially considering that I've allowed you to remain alive until sundown." Tessa looked out the window. "Would you look at that? Almost sundown." She grabbed Stefan's phone again, and walked over to the other side of the room to dial Damon again.

I eventually just give up on the cooking, and grabbed the spell book before sitting at the table with Elena, flipping through the book.

"Is he dead yet?" Tessa asked when Damon picked up.

"They probably want his blood," Tessa said to Damon, and I rolled my eyes. Great. Someone _else _with magical blood. "Silas drank the Cure from Katherine, now his blood is the Cure." Tessa paused, listening to the other end. "Think about it, Damon. The Travelers aren't fans of immortality. And I had to bind the other side to _something_. Something that would last forever. Something that Silas couldn't destroy." She paused. "Something a little closer to his heart. 2000 years old. Immortal. Indestructable. You're a smart boy Damon. Figure it out."

Wait just a second.

Something close to his heart that Silas couldn't bear to destroy...2000 years old...indestructable..._immortal_...

"_Son. Of. A. Bitch,_" I accidentally said aloud, clutching the spell book to my chest.

Tessa is a freaking _genius._

The Anchor was Amara.

"What is it?" Elena asked.

Before I could answer her, Stefan zoomed across the room and stabbed Tessa right in the stomach with a kitchen knife.

"Tessa!" I exclaimed. "No!" Oh, this was _great_!

I tried to run over to my friend, but after Stefan commanded Elena to run, he grabbed me by the arm and zoomed right after her.

"Hey! Wait! No!" I struggled.

Once we were far away enough, I pulled myself out of Stefan's grip. "What the hell was that about?"

"You heard Tessa," Stefan said simply.

"If I remember correctly, Tessa was the one that saved your ass from that quarry!" I threw back.

"Tessa was going to kill Elena," Stefan retorted.

"Elena is a big girl!" I stormed. "I'm pretty sure that she can take care of herself. Oh wait, that's right, she can't!" I kept going, not even caring if Elena could hear me at this point. "Because apparently, she can't do anything right without the people of this god damn town having to swoop in and save her."

"Where is all this coming from? She is your _sister_."

"And Damon is _your _brother, but that didn't stop the two of you from hating each other for over a hundred and fifty years!" I responded. I groaned, balling my hands into fists. I felt the air around me beginning to pick up, but as soon as I took a couple deep breaths to calm me down, they quickly faded. Did I do that?

"Elena is my friend, and your sister. I was trying to protect her," Stefan said, ignoring what I said.

How could he have his head so far up her ass? I sighed. "It's always about Elena, isn't it? Elena needs saving, Elena needs the Cure, we need to kill and hurt people-like Kol Mikaelson and his _entire_ bloodline-to save Elena's life. Well, we _don't_, Stefan. We do not need to sacrifice so many people for the life of one person."

"Even your sibling?" He questioned.

"To be honest, Stefan, I really stopped caring about Elena after she tried to kill me when her humanity was turned off."

"So her humanity was turned off! She wasn't in her right mind," He defended.

"But she never apologized for it!" I bellowed, and the wind picked up a bit harder this time. I let myself calm down before I start talking again. "The thing that makes me upset is that she never even tried to apologize. She's just been trying to bury it underneath us like it never happened. But the truth is, I wouldn't be here right now if it weren't for Damon and Tessa."

"What does Tessa have to do with it?" He asked.

"Tessa is the one that saved my life after Silas stabbed you and threw you into that safe, and nearly sucked my dry. She saw that I was dying, and healed me," I explained.

"So is that why you're so eager to stand up for Tessa?" Stefan inquired.

"You know what? Yes, yes it is," I said after a bit of thought. "And you should be too. Because if it weren't for Tessa, you'd still be stuck drowning in a safe while your brother and ex-girlfriend shacked up," I finished, quoting Caroline. With that, I turned on my heel and stormed away. I heard Stefan calling me, but I ignored him. We were by the boarding house enough that I knew the way back to Matt's place, so I let my steam die down as I walked back home, to the one person that I knew valued humanity and lives.

All the while I clutched Tessa's spell book tightly in my hands, and watched the falling leaves dance around me, following the pattern of my hand.

* * *

**TBC...**

**About that little rant...**

**Juliet likes Tessa. Tessa saved her life, told her about her family, and her magic. So of course, she's pissed off when Stefan hurts her, trying to protect Elena. Elena, who is in constant need of saving.**

**Seeing Elena for who she is now a big thing for Juliet. Juliet only knows pre-September 2009 Elena, when she still had her senses. To see how quickly her personality has changed after meeting Stefan and Damon and becoming a vampire is a hard thing to digest, especially when you know that your sister has tried to kill you.**

**Juliet and Stefan and Juliet and Elena will reconcile eventually, it might just take some time. Stefan and Juliet faster than her and Elena though lol.**

**So I now have an official summary worked up for the AU in NOLA! Which is good, so I know what I am aiming for when I start writing it.**

**ANYWAYS!**

**Please vote in the Poll about what to do for the Jefan (Jules/Stefan) AU please! I'm really conflicted ha ha.**

**REVIEW! FOLLOW! FAVOURITE! THANKS! STAY TUNED!**


	7. Death and the Maiden

**Disclaimer: **I don't own the Vampire Diaries! I just own my OC, Juilet Jordan Gilbert, and any other characters I make up along the way!

**Author's Note:** Can I just say that I'm so happy about all the follows and favourites that I have for this story? You guys make me so happy!

So I've made the poll for the Human!Jefan AU! Please vote!

* * *

**Enjoy!**

"Matty!" I whispered. Matt didn't move an inch. Wait, why was I whispering? Matt and I were the only ones in the house. I crept up from beside his bed, and flopped right on top of him. "Up!"

Matt yelled as he flung his eyes open. He looked like he had a mini heart attack! He recovered quickly when he saw that it was just me. "Jesus, Jules! What are you trying to do? Kill me?"

"No," I said, and held up Tessa's spell book that I had stayed up all night trying to read. I eventually had to open up Google Translate on my laptop. "I've been reading Tessa's spell book, and I think I can do a spell!"

"Okay," Matt said, sitting up slightly. "You clearly want to show me, so go ahead."

"Sorry about this," I muttered in advance. I pointed both my hands at Matt's head. "Evhas elebuk estupay!"

He immediately started groaning in pain at the pain infliction spell I had incantated. I squealed with delight, quickly stopping.

"What did you do?" He asked, rubbing at his head.

"It was a pain infliction spell. Travelers can't create actual pain, so this spell activates the power of pain infliction."

"And that means?..."

"I'm not fully sure yet, the book is in Latin."

"Is that all you needed?" Matt asked, lying back down in his bed. "Or can I go back to sleep?"

"Nope," I said, flopping back on top of him. "You have work."

"Can't I just ditch?" He mumbled.

"Who else is gonna pay for the bills?"

"I don't know, maybe, _you_?"

"I'm still suffering from trauma, Matty."

"Trauma! What trauma?" He asked, bolting upright.

I shrugged slightly. "My life."

* * *

I eventually got Matty out of bed and off to work. Once he was gone, I realized that I had nothing to do. Caroline was still at the college, Matt was at work, and I was in a fight with Stefan, and by association, Elena and Damon.

I need more friends.

So I took a quick shower, throwing on a flowery tank top and jean shorts before I called up the one person other than Matt that isn't mad at me right now. "Juliet! What a pleasant surprise."

"Klaus, I told you last night that I'd call you today."

"Oh right."

"So how are things in New Orleans?" I asked, sitting on the couch and tucking my legs up.

"They're fine. Juliet, I know you. And by the tone of your voice, this isn't just a casual phone call. What's wrong?" Klaus asked.

It's strange how a man that I have not seen yet knows me so well.

"I feel like, ever since I woke up, I want to go back to sleep," I said. "Well, not _sleep_ sleep, but comatose sleep. Do you know what I mean?"

"I do, love. What's happened?"

"Stefan hates me. I mean, the man's got no memories of me, but he hates me. I made the wrong impression last night when I yelled at him."

"You yelled at him?"

"Yup."

"And for what?"

"He was making Elena to be the Queen of Everything," I blurted. "I mean, isn't that what she basically is? Everyone is so preoccupied with her that they wouldn't even notice if there was a hostile takeover of the town."

"And you yelled at him for it," Klaus concluded.

"Yeah. God Klaus, I felt like all the tension that has been builting up between Elena and me finally broke, but I let it out on Stefan. And now I refuse to look him in the eye."

"You know what this sounds like to me?" He asked.

"What?"

"This does not sound like the Juliet Gilbert that I know."

"What do you mean?" I asked, slightly offended.

"Where is the Juliet that yelled at _me_ for getting upset with her when I thought that Silas had put a piece of white oak stake in my back? Where is the Juliet that cursed at me until I came to her graduation with the cure for her friend dying of werewolf venom? Where is the Juliet that practically kicked my ass when I told her that I wanted Hayley and my baby dead?"

"I read about that in my diary. It sounded like I beat you up pretty bad."

"You _did_. That's the Juliet Gilbert that I admire. That's the Juliet Gilbert that I'd fight for. Whatever you do, don't lose sight of her."

Actual tears sprung up, and I gently wiped them away. "I want to see you," I blurted.

"What?"

"I'm gonna come to New Orleans."

"What? When?" Klaus asked, sounding excited.

That made me laugh. "I don't know. But I want to see your face again. I want to hear your laugh. You're one of my favourite people Klaus, even if I don't remember it all that well."

"I remember _all_ of it Jules, and trust me, I was your _favourite_ person."

I laughed again. "I'll talk to you later, Klaus. I have some apologizes to make."

"That's my girl. I'll see you soon?"

"_Very_ soon. I promise."

As soon as I hung up the phone, it started ringing again, so I just assumed that it was Klaus and he forgot to say something. I quickly picked it up. "Hello?"

"Hey, Capulet," a voice says, and I immediately freeze. That was _not_ Klaus.

"Stefan," I breathed. "What do you want?"

"I remember."

This time, my heart freezes. "What?"

"I remember everything. Everything about my life, everything that we've been through. I remember it all."

"That's great!" I said happily. Even though I was still pissed at Stefan, I was still happy that he had his memories back. And that's when I remembered what I was going to do. "Listen, I'm sorry about last night. I shouldn't have said any of those things."

"I should have understood better," Stefan said. "You were right. We do have a tendancy to make everything about Elena. You had just woken up from a coma, and you had no memories of the last two years. I kind of understand where you're coming from. I've had that past with Damon, you were right."

"Just because I said sorry to you, doesn't mean that I'm gonna say it to Elena. My sister and I still have a ways to go until we can properly reconcile. But us? We're not mad at each other anymore?"

"We're not mad at each other anymore," He clarified.

"Good. I don't like it when we're in a fight. According to my diaries, we were good friends."

"And according to my memories, we are," He said. "Listen, I called you to tell you something."

"What is it?"

"We've found a way to bring Bonnie back."

* * *

"And exactly how do you plan on performing this spell?" I asked as I paced the Salvatore boarding house. Stefan told me that they planned on making Bonnie the Anchor to the Other Side once they found out that Amara (who had sucked the Cure right out of Silas last night, and she's mortal again) has one foot on both sides, so if we transfer the Anchor powers to Bonnie, she'll be alive again.

So of course I rushed right over to see how they are going to execute this genius plan.

"We need a witch to perform it," Damon said, looking right at me.

My eyes widened and I immediately started shaking my head. "Nuh-uh. No way. I am _not_ powerful enough for something like that." I pondered for a second. "But I _do_ know someone who is."

"Oh, please tell me you're not talking about who I think you are," Damon muttered.

"Tessa?" Elena guessed.

I made an annoyed face. "No, Harry Houdini. Yes, Tessa! She's the most powerful witch who is closest to us in regards to area. She wants Amara dead just like we do. It couldn't be more perfect!"

"Juliet's right," Elena started, actually ignoring my comment, and I was a bit surprise to hear her say that. "Tessa is the only one that can do it."

"Great," Damon said, standing up from the chair he was sitting in. "Then I'll go talk to her."

"Damon, wait!" I paused him, running in front of him. "Maybe I should be the one to go. By myself."

"Yeah, that's not gonna happen," Damon said.

"Damon, I am the only one that Tessa maybe likes," I said. "If she's gonna listen to anyone, it would be me."

Damon thought for a second, before he sighed. "Who else is okay with this?"

Everyone in the room nodded in approval. "Then it's settled," I said. "But before I go, I need twenty bucks," I requested, holding my hand out in front of Damon.

"What? For what?" He asked.

I groaned. "Do you want Tessa to help us?"

"Yes."

"Then fork it over."

* * *

One cup of ice cream from Dairy Queen later, I pulled up to Tessa's cabin. With the ice cream in one hand, and her spell book in the other, I closed the driver's side door with my hip before quickly running over to the door. I knocked on the door, and waited for Tessa to answer. A couple seconds later, she did. She looked completely unharmed.

She eyed the cup in my hand. "What is that?"

"A peace offering?" I suggested, holding it out in front of her to take. "I'm sorry about what went down the other day. Trust me, I had nothing to do with what Stefan did. In fact, I yelled at him about it right after."

"Really?" Tessa asked, and I nodded. She looked from the cup, to me, then back to the cup as she took it out of my hands. "Come in."

"Will do," I said as I gently stepped in. "So, here's the thing," I said, going right into it.

"I knew you were here for something," Tessa grumbled to herself. "What is it?"

"You know Amara, right?" I asked. "She looks exactly like my attention whore of a sister, she's the very first Immortal woman?"

"What about her?" Tessa asked as she took a bite of the ice cream.

"Well, the other night, she punched a hole in Silas's neck and drained the Cure right out of him. She's human now. Oh, and she kind of wants to die," I informed her. "And we have her at the Salvatore house."

"But she's alive?" Tessa confirmed.

"Right now, yeah," I answered. "But Silas is on his way to kill her right now. He wants to destroy the Other Side so that he and Amara can have their happily ever after." I stepped closer to Tessa. "And I know that you would rather his lying, cheating ass, not have that."

"I get all that, Juliet. But what do you and your friends want?" Tessa asked.

"The Anchor is the glue that holds together the Other Side, is it not?" I clarified, and Tessa nodded. "And you need a powerful being to hold it together. Amara was perfect until she washed away her Immortality, but I _do_ have someone else in mind for the job, in case you were looking. And if I were you, I'd start looking quick."

"You mean an Anchor swap?" She asked.

"Exactly. The person I have in mind is dead and stuck on the Other Side."

"I'd be making a _ghost_ a human toll booth between our side and the Other Side, giving her the power to interact with our physical world and the supernatural purgatory," Tessa said.

"Well, it's good to know that we're on the same page, but what's your point?

"I need a _massive_ amount of power to do a transfer spell like that," She explained.

"Okay," I said. "What do you need?"

"I need something to draw on," Tessa started. "Moon's not full. I don't think there's another worthy comet for another billion years."

"I really don't think that Amara is gonna last till the end of the day, much less a billion years," I told her. While I was at the boarding house, I could hear Amara's desperate screams for someone to leave her alone. I just thought that she was nuts, but then I found out that she was just talking to people on the Other Side. I would scream too.

"Amara, that's it!" Tessa said.

I looked at her, confused. "You want to draw power from Amara?"

"Not just Amara," Tessa started. "Elena. Katherine."

"Doppelgangers," I guessed. "How are you going to draw power from them?"

"They're powerful, mystical, naturally reoccurring," Tessa explained. "It'll work."

"Then what are we waiting for? Amara's not getting any younger," I said, grabbing Tessa's wrist.

"Wait," She said, and I paused.

"What is it?" I asked.

"I'm going to need your blood too. And your magic," She said.

"What?" I questioned. "The whole reason I suggested coming to get you was for you to do the stupid spell! I'm not strong enough for that."

"It's good practice," Tessa protested. "Do you want to save your friend or not?"

That was all I needed to say, "Let's go."

* * *

Katherine, Elena, Amara and I surrounded a round table as Tessa placed Bonnie's grimoire on the table.

"What is that?" Amara asked curiously.

"It's Bonnie's grimoire," Elena explained

"A grim...what?" Amara repeated.

"It's a magic spell book," Katherine told her. She rolled her eyes as she mumbled, "Idiot."

I rolled my eyes and nudged Katherine. "What?"

"Be polite. If it weren't for Amara, you wouldn't be alive," I said.

"Whatever you say, JJ," Katherine said.

"It's a tailsman," Tessa continued. "Since Bonnie can't be here, her grimoire will have to do." She gestured to the book. "Hands in, palms up," She commanded.

Amara hesitantly stuck her hand towards Tessa, who roughly grabbed it. She pulled a knife out, and made a cut on Amara's hand, who grimaced.

"I'm sorry love," Tessa said sarcastically as Amara's blood dripped over the book. "Did that hurt?"

"I've been through worse," Is all that Amara says.

Katherine's next. "Easy, okay? I'm fragile these days." She wrapped her hand around the blade, and squeezed so that the blade sliced her hand open. She winced as she let her blood fall on the book.

Elena put her hand out, and Tessa poked a hole in it. Elena was barely affected, the blood dripping down her hand as she gave Katherine a victory smirk.

"Show off," Katherine muttered.

The doppelgangers blood spots formed a triangle, so when I stuck my hand out, Tessa made a gentle cut on my hand, and I tilted it to the side so that my blood would fall in the center.

Once I let enough fall out, Tessa took my non injured hand. "Just speak with me."

"How will I know what to say?" I ask. I never did get a chance to actually look at the spell. I still don't understand it.

"I'll speak first, and then you just jump in," Tessa suggested. I nodded, and she began. "Ina prankuus sectee gem i Qatarkay Rrasataam. I Patarsay rrasataam," She said, and as soon as she began chanting, our blood formed into interlocked ovals with a circle overlapping it, the spot in the center filled with blood. As all the candles in the room lit themselves, I took a deep breath before chanting along with Tessa, "Ina prankuus sectee gem i Qatarkay Rrasataam. I Patarsay rrasataam."

The candles suddenly went out, and Tessa and I looked at each other in confusion. "_No_," Tessa growled.

"Is it done?" Katherine asked.

"No, it's not done," Tessa scowled. I jumped as the wind suddenly picked up, and leaves began flying into the room from the open window. I gasped as all the lightbulbs in the room suddenly began shattering with a loud 'pop'. Elena and I were confused, Amara looked scared, and Katherine looked more annoyed than anything.

"What the hell is happening?" I shouted over the winds.

"Silas is happening!" Tessa answered. "Show yourself, bastard!" She exclaimed to the winds.

Things just got worse, and all the power in the house finally shut down, the lights flickering off.

"I can't see anything, can you?" Katherine asked me, clearly upset that she no longer had supernatural vision.

The glow of a flashlight illuminated the room, and Damon walked over to us. "The electricity is out in the whole house. What happened?"

"Silas is here," Elena told him.

"Well, Silas owes me a new fuse box." Damon's expression changed as he moved the light from Elena to Katherine. "I only count two doppelgangers. Where's Crazypants?"

"Amara?" I asked, and looked around myself to see if I could catch a glimpse of her. My stomach dropped when I realized that someone else wasn't here either. She wouldn't...not until the spell was done, would she?

"Where's Tessa?" I asked. I didn't wait for an answer as I left the room to start searching the house. My only thought as I fumbled around for a flashlight was that we were lucky we didn't do this spell in Klaus's-I mean my-house.

I finally found a flashlight, and I looked for Tessa everywhere-until I came back to the place where we were doing the spell, and saw her standing with Elena, completing it.

There was blood seeping from her shoulder. My poor friend just can't catch a break. "Tessa!" I exclaimed, running for her. "Are you okay?"

"Don't distract her," Elena demanded, and I just gave her a death glare. A friend of mine was _hurt_. Sure, this spell is to bring Bonnie back, but excuse me for trying to be nice and help my friend. Something that Elena should learn.

"Stefan and Amara are not inside," Damon said as he walked into the room.

Elena walked over to him as I walked over to Tessa. "That's because Stefan took her. You have to go find him before he gets himself killed."

"No, he's luring Silas away. This is typical Stefan, he'll be fine," Damon told her.

"He's hurting," Elena said. "He's not thinking right. Silas might have been the one to put him in that safe, but we were the ones that were supposed to get him out." At "we" Elena looked over at me, but when she was done her sentence I said, "That was technically your jobs. I was in a coma all summer; _you_ guys were supposed to be the ones that noticed he was missing."

Elena just ignored me as she pleaded with Damon. "Please? Go find him. We can't lose him again."

"Okay," Damon said, and he quickly left the room as Tessa got closer to finishing her spell.

Tessa lit the grimoire on fire, and it looked like she was almost finished. She stopped, and Elena and I exchanged looks. "Is it done?" Elena asked.

I grabbed her wrist to run over to the living room, where I knew Jeremy was. And where Jeremy was, Bonnie would be. "Let's go find out."

We met Caroline halfway, and the three of us literally stopped in our steps at the sight of a back, with long hair.

Bonnie's hair.

"Bonnie?" I spoke in a broken whisper, tears rushing to my eyes.

"Please tell me this is real," Caroline whispered to herself. I reached over and squeezed her hand.

"It's real, all right," I said.

Bonnie turned around, tears flooding her eyes. "You guys can see me?"

Hearing her speak is all I need for my feet to push me forward, running towards her. "It worked!" I sobbed as I crashed into Bonnie's arms. I could feel Caroline's and Elena's arms around my back as the four of us squeezed each other in a happy group hug.

"Oh my God!" Caroline cried. She pulled back from the hug. "And we can be roommates because we have that extra bed and we can clear out half the closet..."

Bonnie, Elena and I exchanged glances as we said simultaniously, "Caroline."

She just cried again as she covered her eyes. "I'm sorry! I just can't believe you're really here!" Caroline leaned forward and the four of us were in a hug again, squeezing each other, never once letting go.

We're not letting go again.

* * *

We decided to give Bonnie and Jeremy some privacy, so I went and started cleaning up the room that got destroyed. And that's when I heard Katherine screaming for help, and that someone was dying.

I leapt to my feet, and ran over to where I heard Katherine's voice. "Katherine? Katherine! What's wrong-"

I cut myself off at the sight of Tessa on the ground, blooding pouring from her slit wrists and pooling on the ground. "Tessa, no!"

I fell to the ground next to Katherine and grabbed her arms, putting her in my lap.

"Do something, Juliet!" Katherine pleaded. Why was Katherine so eager to save Tessa?

"I don't know what to do!" I exclaimed. I turned to Tessa, pressing one of my hands to her bleeding wounds. "What do we do?!"

"Nothing," She barely whispered.

"You can't die!" I protested, tears forming for the second time in less than half an hour. "You can't die! You still have so much to teach me, I have so much to learn!"

"You're a Christos Traveler," She breathed. "You'll figure it out." And with that, I could feel her chest go still. Her eyes glazed over, her facial muscles relaxed. And Qetsiyah was no more. Again.

"No!" I shouted. "No! No! No! No!"

I just rocked Tessa's body back and forth. Katherine eventually left when she realized that even if Tessa could be brought back to life, there wasn't a witch around to bring her back. And I certainly wasn't powerful enough for it.

I eventually pulled my phone out of my pocket, and texted Matt that I needed his help, and to bring a shovel. He asked why, but I don't think I texted him back. I just sat with Tessa.

I'm not sure how long I sat in the pool of Tessa's blood, but I eventually heard footsteps, and looked up to see Damon, holding a shovel. He nodded to Tessa's body. "Her turn."

I just looked back down to her body, using my blood caked hands to smoothen her hair back. "She told me so much," I whispered.

"What?" Damon asked, leaning forward.

I slowly looked up to him. "I know that you guys didn't like Tessa. But _I_ did. She was my friend. She gave me answers, answers that nobody else could have possibly had." I hugged her body to my chest. "She deserves more than just a backyard burial."

"Then are you gonna do it?" Damon asked, holding the shovel out to me.

I gave him a glare, snatching the shovel from his grasp. "I already asked Matt to help. You might not have any sympathy, Damon, but I do. You were in Tessa's position a year ago, were you not?"

He didn't say anything as I finally pushed myself off of the ground. The front door opened, and Matt walked in, holding a shovel. He took one look around. "Who are we burying?"

I wiped my nose. "Tessa. Just give me a hand, don't ask questions."

I stole a blanket to put over Tessa's body. Matt lifted Tessa's body as I grabbed the shovels, and the two of us left the boarding house. I found a nice little spot in the forest, and Matt and I started digging. With the two of us, it didn't take as long, so he placed her body in the makeshift grave, and I placed the blanket over her. We put the dirt back over her body, and smoothed it out so that it was nice and even. When we were done, I wanted to just have a minute with Tessa, so Matt went back and waited in the car.

I sat down next to the large stone that Matt and I made Tessa's gravestone. "Hey. I hope you're finally at peace. With Silas. I'm going to miss talking to someone intelligent," I said, managing half a laugh. "I just wanted to thank you. Thank you for finding Stefan, and taking him out of that quarry when Damon, Elena and I couldn't. Thank you for bringing me back to your cabin after I got drunk off my ass and before I could do something I regretted. Well, more than kissing a teacher. Thank you for bringing my best friend back to life. Thank you for teaching me whatever magic you could, believing in me. Thank you for telling me about my family history. Thank you for saving my life. But most importantly, thank you for being my friend. I didn't know who I could trust after I woke up, and I'm kind of glad one of the people ended up being you." I stood up, dusting my pants off. "Rest in peace, Tessa," I whispered softly, before turning around and walking back to Matt's truck.

I felt a sudden coldness at my neck, and I spun around to see what it was. It appeared to be nothing. Maybe with all the ghost and dead peopleness of tonight I just freaked myself out.

"Who was that that we buried?" Matt asked as I buckled myself in.

I paused. "She was my friend. And I hope she's happy."

Unbeknownst to me, Tessa's ghost was actually standing with me, smiling away at what I did for her.

* * *

**TBC...**

**I just thought it'd be nice for Tessa to have a funeral.**

**OKAY! So I am making up a plan for Juliet to visit New Orleans for a quick chapter in this story (though not sure if I'll pick it up) BUT If you want to read about her adventures in New Orleans, you can read The Originals spin off of Ripples of Reality, which is called Bloodshed and Rattles!**

**Juliet's seeing Wes Maxfield next chapter! Ooh, what's going to happen?**

**REVIEW! FOLLOW! FAVOURITE! THANKS! STAY TUNED!**


	8. Dead Man on Campus

**Disclaimer: **I don't own the Vampire Diaries! I just own my OC, Juilet Jordan Gilbert, and any other characters I make up along the way!

**Author's Note: **Okay, who else is HEARTBROKEN by the Vampire Diaries? I DON'T WANNA SPOIL ANYTHING BUT GOD DAMN THAT FUCKING EPISODE IS GONNA BE SO HARD TO WRITE. AND FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO HAVE SEEN IT YOU KNOW EXACTLY WHAT SCENE I'M TALKING ABOUT. Also, who is completely done after that finale? I have a plan for what I'm gonna do for it, and that's what I'm really looking forward to.

Also just FYI this chapter doesn't deal with the shit going on at Whitmore.

**Enjoy!**

* * *

"Matty!" I called out as I ran into the Mystic Grill, clutching Tessa's book in my arms. I finally managed to do the research that I promised Matt that I would be, and with the help of the book (and a Latin translation book) I figured out that Matt had a Passenger inside of him. Remember, Passengers? They're Travelers that can hitch rides inside of other people.

I have been by myself all day, since Elena, Caroline, and Bonnie went back to Whitmore. I told them that I just needed another couple of days before I was ready to face Wes again, and even though Caroline threatened me, I stood my ground and said that I was staying (I also may have threatened her with my new Traveler powers too).

I ran up to the bar, where Matt was serving Katherine. I dumped the book on top of the counter. "I know what's wrong with you." I flipped the book open, and pointed to the Passenger spell. "You have a Passenger inside of you. A Passenger is a Traveler that can possess the body of someone, and eventually take over the body once the body of the Traveler has been destroyed."

Katherine gave me a look. "Sorry, JJ. You're a bit late. I just told Matt all of that."

My shoulders slump. "So I just spent my whole morning doing a bunch of stupid research for nothing?"

"Not for nothing," Matt said, trying to help me feel better.

"Yes, for nothing," Katherine retorted.

I groaned. "Great. If you need me, I'll be over in the corner." I pushed myself away from the counter, grabbing my book and putting it down at an empty table. I sighed as I sat down, opening it so that I could do more reading. I was pulling my translation book out from my bag, when someone sat across from me.

"Want a drink?" Katherine asked me, holding up the bottle of alcohol she obviously stole.

"No," I said. "I do not want a repeat of the last time I got drunk. Have one for me, though."

She pouted. "Come on. Please? I've had a really bad..._year_, and right now, I just want a friend."

I put my elbows on the table as Katherine gave me puppy eyes. I groaned. Puppy eyes always worked with me whenever Elena did them, and this girl is a carbon copy of her. "One drink."

Katherine smiled in triumph as I opened the Latin book. "Why do you have that book?" She asked, pouring me the drink.

I grabbed the shot glass from her. "Well, as you might know, Latin is not my language. The only way I've been reading the spell book is with this one."

I knocked back the shot as Katherine said, "It might not be _your_ language, but it's your mother's tongue. She must have spoken a lot of Latin at home."

"I wouldn't know, my mother died when I was like, three, and Miranda and Grayson raised me. And they're not Latin, nor did Miranda give birth to me," I said.

"Oh yeah, that," She said, biting her lip. "Whatever. Latin is still in your blood. It's still wired in your brain," She told me. "Look at the book."

"What?" I asked her.

"Just do it."

I looked down at the Latin words, though they still didn't make sense to me. "It's still all Latin."

Katherine rolled her eyes. "Then you're not _looking_. _Really_ look at them. Concentrate on nothing but the book."

I gave her a look. "Give me a break."

"Seriously, JJ. Just do it."

I rolled my eyes, but looked down at the book. I try to zone out everyone and everything that I can hear, letting my eyes wrap around the words. I close my eyes, the markings still fresh in my brain. I embed them in my eyes, and when I open them again, all the words make sense to me. It's like when I opened my eyes, the words translated into English.

I gasped. "Oh my God, it worked! It worked!" I looked up at Katherine, who had a smile on her face.

"I told you," She said, taking another shot.

I couldn't stop myself from leaning forward and pulling her into a big hug. "Thank you, Katherine! Thank you thank you thank you!"

"You're...welcome," She said slowly, very surprised by the hug. "I guess."

I pull back, a beaming smile on my face as I shoved the translation book back into my bag. "I do not need this book anymore!"

"That's great," Katherine said, and then she quickly went serious. "I need your help."

"Name it," I responded.

She furrowed her eyebrows. "Really? You're agreeing to help that fast?"

"You just helped me," I pointed out. "I owe you one."

She shrugged. "Whatever. I need you to call up Stefan. We need him too."

"Why?" I asked.

"I thought you never wanted to see me again," A heavily accented voice said, and when I turned around, I immediately flinched when I recognized her as the Czech woman who attacked us at the bar when we were looking for Stefan.

I whipped my head so that I was looking at Katherine again. "What's she doing here?"

"You two know each other?" Katherine asked, clearly surprised.

"Don't you remember?" I asked her. I pointed at the girl with my thumb. "Don't you remember her as the girl that went after you back at that bar when we looked for Stefan?"

Katherine's eyes light up. "Right! Right." She stood up, and walked over to Czech girl. All the while, I looked at her in disbelief. Didn't this girl try to kill Katherine?

"Then why is she here?" I asked Katherine.

"You two haven't formally met," was all that Katherine said. "Nadia, this is JJ. Or, Juliet," Katherine said to the Czech woman, or, Nadia. "JJ, this is Nadia Petrova." She grit her teeth as she said the next part. "My daughter."

* * *

I had Katherine explain the story to me at least five times. I don't remember reading the part about Katherine having a baby in my diaries, but it all made sense after she told me. Apparently, she turned into a crazy bitch after Nadia was ripped out of her arms as soon as she was born. And I felt bad for Katherine. But if you tell her that she'd kick my ass.

Anyways, then she explained what she needed Stefan's help for, and she said that it had to do with Matt. As soon as she mentioned Matt's name, I was dialing Stefan's number. I quickly told him that I needed his help, and after a slight protest from his side, I threatened to melt his brain into mush unless he helped us.

He made it to the Grill, and Katherine lead us into some sort of storage closet, where no one could see us. Now, all that was left was for Matt to come back with some knife that he was talking about.

It was me, Stefan, Katherine, and Nadia standing in the closet, as the two of them readjusted their clothes. Huh. Like mother, like daughter, I supposed.

Okay, the whole daughter thing is really creeping me out.

"Just out of morbid curiosity," Stefan started. "Which one of you is younger?"

"I am," they both instantly say, and Nadia gives her mother a look.

Stefan and I both look at each other, unsure of what to say next. "Right," He finally said.

We were both saved when Matt walked into the room, holding up the knife. "Okay, so here's the knife that the Traveler left behind with me. Now what are we doing in here?"

Katherine takes the knife from Matt. "Take a seat, Matt," She said, and Matt did as she asked.

Knife in hand, she turned to Nadia, gesturing to Matt. Nadia rolled her eyes. "This is ridiculous," She muttered, and stepped forward.

"Wait!" Katherine said. Nadia stopped, and turned to face Katherine, who was now facing me. "Let JJ do it."

My jaw dropped. "Me?"

"Does she even know the spell?" Nadia asked, annoyed.

Oh hell no, nobody uses that tone with me.

"As a matter of fact, I _do_ know the spell," I sneered. I read all about it when I learned about Travelers. I learned the spell when you put yourself into a person's body, and I learned the spell on how to call the person out.

"Then be my guest," Nadia said, stepping away from Matt.

I could feel Stefan's eyes on me as I walked over to stand where Nadia was standing. She was still standing next to me though, wanting to be there for when the Traveler wakes up. Now that Katherine put me on the spot, and me, being me, was pissed when someone doubted me, I feel like I had to do this right.

Matt looked a little freaked when Nadia was about to do it, but he seemed more relaxed when Katherine suggested that I do it. I gave him an encouraging smile as I placed my left hand on his cheek, and said the spell. "_Vite_," I enchanted, which, according to the book, translates into "Come forth", which means that the Traveler in the body is to wake up and take over the host body.

Matt closed his eyes, then opened them, black covering his whole eyeballs. Then he closed them again, and when he opened them again, his eyes were normal.

But it wasn't Matt.

"What the hell was that?" Stefan asked.

"She's calling on Matt's Passenger," Katherine explained before I could.

I moved out of the way as Matt asked Nadia something in Czech. She soothingly replied something back. Matt's eyes travel over to Katherine, and he quickly stood up.

"Whoa whoa," Stefan said, grabbing his arm to pull him back. "Easy." Stefan pushed Matt back down into his seat, putting both hands on his shoulders. "Easy."

"Hello, Gregor," Katherine smirked as she walked over to stand beside Nadia. "I'm Nadia's mother. It's a pleasure to finally meet you."

"What do you want?" Matt, or Gregor, rather, asked.

"Here's the thing," Katherine started, wrapping her arm around Nadia. "Nadia's my only child. So naturally, I'm suspicious of anyone who wants to date her." Unwrapping herself from her daughter, Katherine demanded, "Why don't you tell us the real reason you're in Mystic Falls?"

"To track and kill Silas," Gregor answered.

Um, you're kind of late, buddy.

"Oh," Katherine said. "So it has absolutely nothing to do with this?" She asked, holding up the knife that Matt had. I finally had a better look at it, and almost gasped out loud when I saw what it was.

It was a Passenger knife.

It's the only thing that is known that can make a Passenger leave the host's body. Drive it into their chest, they die. The host, however, remains unharmed.

Gregor's face dropped. "How did you get that?" He asked as he stood up. He was about to step towards Katherine, but Stefan didn't let him get too far. He grabbed Gregor by the shoulders and said, "I'd much rather be getting drunk right now, so why don't you stop wasting our time and tell us what you're doing here?"

Katherine devilishly smiled as she walked over to Gregor, unsheathing the knife before holding it to Gregor's throat.

"Fine," He spat. "After Silas was dead, I was meant to kill _her_," He said, looking straight at Katherine.

She slightly faltered, but didn't let it show. "I didn't see that one coming," She said.

"You were using me to get to her?" Nadia asked him, very clearly offended. I would be too. "Why? Why would you kill her?"

"That's what the Travelers want," Gregor said. "And I don't question my orders."

Travelers? "Wait, there are other Travelers in the area?" I asked him.

His eyes moved over to look at me. "Would you look at that? It's Eumelia Christos."

So not only does Gregor know me, he knows my birth name. "How do you know my birth name?" I asked him. I didn't even know I had a birth name until a few weeks ago.

"You're a Christos Traveler," He said. "Everyone knows your name."

_Everyone_? I thought as my stomach dropped. This is bad.

"See why I don't want you dating my daughter?" Katherine told him. "Because Travelers are ruthless, manipulative, hypocrites." She brought the knife away from Gregor's throat as she nodded her head to Nadia. "I know, because her grandfather was one." And without so much as a warning, she drove the knife right into Matt's stomach.

Nadia gasped, but I wasn't all that worried, because I knew what the knife did. Matt's not hurt.

Stefan put Matt back on to the chair as Nadia caressed his face in horror. "What did you just do?" Stefan asked.

"Give it a rest. Matt will be fine," Katherine said. "Gregor on the other hand, not so much." She played with the knife in her hands. "I just expelled his spirit. There's a reason that the Travelers wanted this knife so badly. It's the only thing that will truly kill a Passenger."

Nadia could only give her mother a look that could only mean, "How could you?".

"Well, this just got really awkward, really fast," I started. "So I'm just gonna go."

"I am too," Stefan said.

We each grabbed one of Matt's arms to get him out of the storage closet.

* * *

It's a good thing that the girl was crowded tonight, because I need a distraction.

This time though, I steered _very clear_ of the alcohol. I do not want a repeat of the last time I had gotten drunk.

Luckily for me, I found someone who could help me stay away from alcohol.

Stefan.

I told him all about the Wes incident, and he promised that he could help me out in anyway. So I asked him to be my sober sponsor so that I never make mistakes with alcohol ever again.

But when I found him, it looked like he was internally spazzing out. "Stefan?" I called as I walked over to him, trying to get his attention. "Stefan," I tried again when I made it to his side. "Stefan!" I said as I touched his shoulder.

He broke out of whatever trance he was in. "Juliet?" He said when he saw that it was me.

"Are you okay?" I asked him. He didn't answer me, but he looked down at his hand. My eyes travelled to where his were, and I gasped when I saw that he had crushed the shot glass he was holding in his hand, and the glass shards embedded themselves into his hand.

"Oh my God," I breathed. "Are you okay?"

He didn't answer again as he shoved me out of the way. Stefan was strong, and I was caught off guard, so I went flying into some guy's arms, who caught me before I fell. I vaguely heard him ask me if I was okay, but I pushed myself off of him as I went after Stefan.

He was taking a back exit, and I had just caught the door before it shut. "Stefan, what the hell?"

"Juliet, get out of here," He insisted as he went down the stairs.

"No!" I refused, following him. "What's going on? What aren't you telling me?"

I could see his body getting frigid, as if he was trying to control his anger. What is wrong with him? "Stefan, whatever it is, you're okay. You're going to be okay. I can help-"

I was cut off when Stefan used his vampire speed to rush at me, grabbing my throat with his hand and choking me, hard. "No, you can't!"

"Stefan," I choked out. "Calm do-down."

"I can't!" He shouted, gripping my throat harder.

I tried as desperately as I could to breathe, but it was getting harder. "Stefan, I can't breathe," I tried telling him. He got this far off look on his face, the same one he had on inside. Looking into his eyes, it was like I could see the hurt, confusion, _trauma_ going on in his head.

That's it! Stefan's not going crazy. He has post traumatic stress disorder. It all makes sense. Being locked in a safe for three months and dying over and over again could definitely do that to a person. He lived through a traumatic experience, and now he had all the free time in the world to relive the moment over and over and over again.

Oh man, what did I learn in my psychology class about people with PTSD? It was getting harder to think due to my lack of oxygen. I could use my magic, but what good what that do? I guess for me, I'd be breathing properly again, but that's not going to help Stefan. I don't want him going through any _more_ pain. I just have to help him get through it. But how?

All while I was racking my brain, it was like I could breathe better, but when I stopped thinking, the pain from all over my body came flooding back in. I was distracting myself from my pain when I was thinking. Maybe that's what I can do with Stefan!

What do I do to distract him?

"Stef...an," I spluterred. "What's your...nick...nickname...for...me?"

That is the best I can do?

"What...is it?" I managed to get out when he didn't respond. His eyes clouded over as he began to think of the name. "You know it. You've...been calling me it...for two years. Don't...tell me that two years...of friendship is going...to go...to waste."

It looked like the memory was finally coming back to him as he said, "Cap...Capulet."

I nodded my head the best I could with his hand on my neck. I could start seeing dark spots, and I grabbed his arm, squeezing it as hard as I could. I guess I was trying to transfer my pain to him, but it didn't really work like that, did it? "And my...my nickname...for...you?"

He hesitated. "Focus," I said. "Focus on the name, Stefan."

"Romeo...Montague..." He answered.

"Right," I gasped. "Look me...in the...eyes. You're not drown...drowning. You're not...in that safe. I'm...I'm with...you."

I could tell Stefan was trying to get it under control, but he was struggling. I have to keep trying. "What are the names...I'd give to...my kids?" I asked him. Random, I know. But when I asked Stefan how I knew I could trust him, he told me the names that I had picked for my children when I was a kid. And he knew them.

"Focus..." I told him as calmly as I could. It was a miracle I was being calm, with how I could die any minute from now. "You can...do this. Tell...me."

"Emily Vivienne," He managed. "Elliott...Owen."

I knew I picked good names. They sounded even better coming from Stefan. After saying Elliott's middle name, he finally let go of me. As he turned away from me, I desperately gasped for air, the blood that had stopped circulating because of Stefan was flowing naturally again.

He was breathing just as heavily as I was. I reached for my neck, feeling the welts that will most likely turn into bruises. When I pulled my hand back, they had a bit of blood on them, but I quickly remember that it was Stefan's, because he grabbed my throat with his bloody hand.

"Thank you," He told me, trying to regain his breath.

"Any time," I answered, rubbing my throat.

* * *

"I thought that killing Silas would help me to move on with my life," Stefan explained to me fifteen minutes later. The Grill had cleared out, so there were only a few people, excluding the two of us, left. Katherine and Nadia were no where to be found. "I was wrong. I spent my summer locked in a safe. One minute I think I'm fine, the next I feel like I'm dying all over again."

"Sounds like PTSD to me," I confirmed. "But that's only what I've learned from my psychology class. And even then I don't pay attention much."

"I just," Stefan started. "I wanted to apologize for almost killing you back there."

I shrugged. "It's okay. You're going through some pretty rough stuff. I don't blame you. That could have been me just as easily as it was you."

"What do you mean?" He asked. "You weren't locked in a safe."

"No," I agreed. "But, I was nearly sucked dry by the same Immortal being that locked you in a safe. I fell into a coma, and when I woke up, I had no memories of the past two years, where I apparently missed _a lot_." I smirked at him. "Sound traumatizing to you?"

He smiled back. "Fine, it does. But you have to admit, mine is worse than yours."

"I am not denying that," I said as Stefan finished his drink.

"Let's go home," He suggested.

"Yeah," I responded, sliding off of the bar stool. "I have to get ready to go back to school."

"Why aren't you at school?" He asked as I grabbed my jacket.

"I made out with a teacher, remember?" I told him. "I have so much shame that you could swim in a pool of-"

I trailed off when I noticed the top of a bill, with the words "Dear Nadia" on the top of it. Well, I only know one Nadia. And if this is the person that I think it is, they do too.

I opened the book that the bill was tucked into, and picked it up. There was a letter scribbled on the back of it.

"What is it?" Stefan asked, but I didn't reply as I read over it.

"Oh my God," I whispered. I don't want to go over the details, but basically, Katherine is dying of old age, and Katherine being Katherine, wants no one but herself to off her. And after being chased by a hybrid for five hundred years, cheating death over and over again, I don't blame her. But I can't let her do this.

"What?" Stefan asked again.

I spun around on my heel, shoving the letter into my pocket. "Long story short-Katherine's trying to kill herself, and we have to stop her," I said, running past him and out of the Grill.

"Why do we have to stop her?" He asked as he followed me.

"Because Katherine is taking the easy way out, and we can't let her," I told him, looking all around me.

"Why?"

"Because of what her death will do," I said, stopping to face him. "Katherine has a child that is in her life now. She has a responsibility. She's abandoned them in the past, but I am _not_ going to let her this time."

"Why not?" He asked me.

I growled. "Because, Stefan! She doesn't get to do that! She doesn't get to throw her life away, now that she has a real purpose to live it. So either help me look for her before she leaves this world forever, or leave me alone so that I can find her."

I turned around and started running again, when I heard the wind rush fast beside me. "I know where she is," He told me.

"Great," I said. "Where?"

Stefan grabs my arms, pulling me to him. My arms automatically wrap around his neck, and my face is just inches apart from his. My heart is pounding irratically as I struggled to breathe.

"It'll be faster if you hold on to my back," He said. "I can run faster."

"Okay," I said slowly, before going around him. "Just please don't say what Edward Cullen did in the Twilight movie," I said, jumping on his back.

"I won't, don't worry," He said, and I wrapped my arms around his neck and clutched, hard.

I closed my eyes, and a couple minutes later, we were by the big clock tower in town. And a person was just stepping off of it.

"Catch her, Stefan!" I told him, and he flashed forward, saving Katherine before she hit the ground.

I ran right over to them, and Stefan was putting her down. "Katherine!" I called out for her, and she turned around when she heard my voice.

"JJ?" She said.

"Are you okay?" I asked her, wrapping my arms around her once I reached her.

"Yeah, I'm fine," She answered, going rigid at my hug.

I pull back from her. "Thank God." And then I lifted my hand, and smacked her right across the face.

"Julie!" Stefan protested as Katherine rubbed her face.

"What was that for?" She asked me, her hand still on her face.

"For trying to kill yourself, a) without telling your kid and b) trying to run away from life," I said. "Listen to me, Katherine. I had six parents. Two were my birth parents, two were my adoptive, and then my legal guardians, my aunt Jenna, and this really awesome guy named Alaric. They _all_ died. And if Nadia lost you, then I'd know how she'd feel. Hurt. Angry. At you, the world, herself. She'd question for the rest of her vampiric existence, what she could have done differently. Even if your death has nothing to do with her, she'll blame herself. And you'd get what you want, which is selfish," I lectured, stepping closer to her. "But you don't get it, do you? Your death would have more negative impacts than positive on her. This isn't about you anymore. This is about the fact that you have a daughter, who is alive, now. Didn't you say that one of the things that impacted you was the fact that your newborn was ripped out of your arms?" I asked her, but she remained quiet. "You should be rejoicing at the fact that your child spent five hundred years of her life looking for you." I took a deep breath. "I have a broken family. I know that you do too. But don't break Nadia's anymore than it already is."

Katherine looked about ready to cry at this point. "Do you know why I tried to do it?" She asked. "I'm dying, Juliet. I'm dying of old age. I don't know. The Cure did something to speed up the _entire_ mortifying process."

"Yeah? Well guess what," I started. "You're the elusive, selfish, manipulative Katherine Pierce," I said. "That's life. Get used to it."

I pushed past her, and I could hear Stefan following behind me. "Was that really necessary?"

I stopped walking, and I turned around to see that Katherine had already left. "No, no it wasn't," I admitted. "But I guess, I got so angry. Nadia did nothing wrong. She just loved her mother. I don't know her, but nobody deserves that. I lost six parents. Nadia's lost one. But while Katherine Pierce is still a real piece of work, I think that she could somehow be redeemed. The only respect that Katherine Pierce truly deserves is her daughters. Nadia shouldn't be deprived of that."

Stefan slowly smiled as he wrapped his arm around me. I leaned into his side as the two of us started walking home. "You are one kind hearted person, Juliet Gilbert."

I smiled as we walked, but then what happened earlier crept back into my mind, and I started getting a little worried.

It must have shown on my face, because Stefan asked, "Are you okay?"

"There was something that Gregor said that bothered me," I told him, and we stopped walking.

"What?"

"If all the Travelers that are in Mystic Falls know who I am," I started. "How much trouble am I in?"

* * *

**TBC...**

**I wanted a chapter for Juliet and Stefan's relationship to grow more, and to be honest, there wouldn't be much for Juliet to do at Whitmore this episode, anyways. And this was more fun!**

**Now I have a question for you guys:**

**I'm conflicted over who should be the one to help Stefan with his PTSD: Juliet, or Katherine. I could get away with it this episode, but next episode eventually lead to a kiss between Stefan and Katherine. Should it still be Katherine to help him, or Juliet? **

**If you tell me, I can get the chapter up faster!**

**REVIEW! FOLLOW! FAVOURITE! THANKS! STAY TUNED!**


	9. The Cell

**Disclaimer: **I don't own the Vampire Diaries! I just own my OC, Juilet Jordan Gilbert, and any other characters I make up along the way!

**Author's Note: **So I have come to a decision on what to do! Oh, no I'm not telling you what it is. You'll have to read and find out :)

ALSO I'M AT 84 FOLLOWERS AND I'M CRYING

SIXTEEN AWAY FROM 100.

YOU ARE ALL TOO FABULOUS FOR WORDS.

**Enjoy!**

* * *

Katherine growled as she ripped out the page from the diary that Stefan gave her and crumpled it up. "What kind of sentimental idiot writes down everything they feel?" She asked, throwing the now crumpled ball behind her.

I rolled my eyes as I tucked my legs under me. Ever since I expressed my worry to Stefan about the Travelers, he said that he would do anything to protect me. And anything included watching over me every second of the day until I was safe. I would have been okay with it.

If he hadn't decided to baby sit Katherine the Whiner.

Why did I insist on saving her life, again?

"Is this what the prophecy meant when it said that all the doppelgängers were drawn together like magnets? Because if it is, I want my money back," Katherine said.

I felt my stomach drop down to my feet. The doppelgänger prophecy. I haven't thought about it once since Tessa mentioned it, because everything has been so crazy. But now that I think about it, the more helpless I feel. I mean, I can't go up against the universe. It's the _universe_. But I know that by Damon and Elena being together, they're trying to fight the prophecy, but it's a prophecy. Most of the time they come true.

"I'm just trying to make sure you don't slit your wrists," Stefan told Katherine.

"Well, this whole neurotic granny vibe, doesn't exactly make me want to live," Katherine said, gesturing to herself. "Do you really have nothing better to do than stand there all day and watch me write in cursive?"

"I'm trying to make sure you don't kill yourself," Stefan assured her.

"And how are you going to do that?" Katherine challenged. "You know, since you're still having your little panic attacks?"

Stefan's face goes stony. "I'm fine," He told her.

"Yeah. Of course," Katherine said with an eye roll. "You are the picture of mental health, Stefan, after being locked for three months in a safe, at the bottom of a quarry."

"I am dealing with it," He said.

"Sorry to interrupt destiny at work," I grumbled. What? Katherine's not doing a very good job at comforting Stefan. Well, nicely. "But Stefan, do you call breaking two chairs 'dealing with it'?" I asked him, and he avoided my gaze.

"JJ's right," Katherine agreed. "How are you supposed to help me stay alive if you can't even help yourself?"

"So does this mean you want to live?" Stefan asked.

Katherine shakes her head. "No. It means I can't work with people who can't give me 100%."

A knock at the door alerts us that someone's at the house, and I know who it is. It's my blonde best friend, who Katherine and I called for back up. Honestly, I only agreed to help Katherine because I seriously like the chairs in the Salvatore house.

And to help Stefan, of course.

"And so, I may have called for backup," Katherine said. She quickly pointed at me. "JJ gave me the number, though."

Stefan just eyes us as he goes over to the front door. I get up to follow him, because in all honesty, there's nothing else to do. And I want to see what Caroline had in mind when she said that she had an idea to help Stefan. Knowing Caroline it's going to be something really outrageous and crazy and...

I stopped in the middle of the hallway as I see Caroline dragging inside the house the safe that Stefan spent three months drowning in. "Stupid," I muttered the last idea out loud.

Caroline brings it into the library as Stefan stares at it as if it was going to kill him, which it very well could, mentally. "I spent 3 months drowning in this thing. What the hell were you thinking?" He spat.

"I was thinking it's time for you to deal wth the source of your PTSD," Caroline told him earnestly.

"And you're sure you're not just sublimating your feelings about what happened to Jesse last night?" Stefan asked her.

"Wait, what happened to Jesse last night?" I broke in. Was he okay?

Caroline whipped around to face me. "Oh, your sister didn't tell you? She killed Jesse last night."

My stomach and jaw dropped. "What? Why?"

"She was trying to save Damon," Stefan supplied. "He was feeding off of him."

"But I thought that vampires fed off of humans, and the occassional animal?" I asked, the animal part mostly referring to Stefan.

"It's a long story," Caroline said to me. "Which I promise I'll explain later. We're getting off topic." She turned back to face Stefan. "_You're_ getting off topic."

"Aren't you a drama major?" Stefan asked her. "What do you know about PTSD?"

"Well, Jules is taking a psychology class," Caroline pointed out, turning to face me. "Jules? What do you think?"

Oh God, why drag me into this? "Listen, I wanna help Stefan as much as you do Caroline, but I don't even know what you have planned! Some people just get over PTSD, some people need years of therapy to just _deal_ with having it, and then some people face it head on..."

I trailed off as Caroline smirked, walking over to the safe and opening it. "We tried it _your_ way, Stefan, but that didn't exactly work. Now, we're gonna try it my way."

Stefan stares at the open safe and then at Caroline. Then, he looks over to me. "What do you think, Jules?"

I shuffled my feet before looking back at Stefan. "You've tried the other tactics, Stefan. You tried getting over it, and that didn't end well for you or your chairs. I don't think you're willing to go through therapy." I crossed my arms. "As long as we can keep the situation under control, then I think Caroline's idea is a good one."

Stefan didn't need much convincing after that. I felt kind of good inside, because Stefan would usually have put up a fight, but after listening to what I said, he got into the safe, and Caroline locked it.

Then, Caroline pulled out a textbook. Closer inspection revealed it to be _my_ textbook, which Caroline had probably swiped from under my bed at the dorm.

"Caroline! Do you even know what you're doing?" Stefan asked, his voice choking up.

"Yes," She responed. 'Well, it's in Jules's textbook."

I rolled my eyes, going over to her. "Give me that." I plucked the book out of her hands, and began flipping through the pages. "It's my textbook, I'll find it."

I completely forgot that Katherine was hear, so I jumped a little when she spoke up. "Have you two ever, um - ahem - you know?" Katherine stared directly at me, looking between me and the safe.

Confused, I looked over to Caroline to see if she had any idea what Katherine was talking about. She was just as clueless as I was. "Not really," I answered.

"Oh, come on, you know," Katherine said, giving a suggestive smirk, looking between me and the safe again. "Have you?"

And I wanted to crash and burn.

My face burned hotly as I finally understood what she was saying, and I shook my head. "Katherine, what the hell?"

"That wasn't exactly a yes or a no," Katherine commented as she sat down on the couch.

"We haven't," I told her, trying my best not to sound disappointed. I think I did pretty well.

Katherine shrugged. "Your loss. He's great in bed."

"So is Elijah, isn't he?" I couldn't help but throw back in her face. Diary-Juliet was very scarred to learn of Elijah and Katherine's brief affair, especially since Elijah was apparently a gentlemen, and a lady, Katherine was not. Again, no one embarrasses Juliet Gilbert and gets away with it.

The smirk on Katherine's face disappears as it turns into growl. "You and Elijah-?"

I shook my head. "Nope, but Klaus is," I told her. Diary-Julie is _very_ descriptive. And an alcoholic.

Katherine screwed up her face. "Oh God, I did _not_ need to hear that," She groaned.

I smiled as I felt Caroline take the textbook out of my hands. "Great! Then my plan worked."

"Here!" Caroline suddenly exclaimed. She called out to the safe. "Okay, Stefan. Prolonged Exposure Therapy. 'In vivo exposure gradually introduces elements of prior trauma, e.g. physical objects, comma, certain aspects of duress, comma-'"

I winced as I heard Stefan's breaths getting raggeder. Caroline and Katherine start arguing, but I'm not paying attention because I'm way too focused on Stefan. I pick up my textbook, and walk over to the safe, crouching down to where the small cracks were.

"Still with us?" I whispered to him.

I got heavy breathing as a response, and banging on the safe walls as another.

"Good to know," I muttered, pushing myself off of the safe and sitting down next to it. I opened the book again, riffling through it before realizing that it had nothing else to tell me. I was going to have to rely on myself. This is where your time in class is going to come in handy, Jules.

Katherine and Caroline's arguing isn't helping me focus. I overhear some stuff about how Caroline talking to Stefan as if she was a teacher wasn't helping, and that's when I decided to butt in. "Just stop!" I finally explode, and the two of them turn to face me. "Guys, your arguing isn't doing anything productive."

"It's not like _you're_ doing anything productive," Katherine argued.

I growled as I stood up. "I'm thinking, unlike you two. Okay, Caroline is right," I started, and rolled my eyes at Caroline giving Katherine a victory smirk. "But, Katherine's right too." Katherine gave Caroline the same smirk that Caroline gave to Katherine, and I rolled my eyes at the two of them again. "Caroline is right because Stefan _does_ need to get to the bottom of what is causing the PTSD and conquer it, because the other methods are clearly not working. But Katherine's right too, because we don't want to over complicate things more than we already have. We need to take this as slowly as we can, so we can properly think about his problem and process it." I pointed to the safe. "Sticking him inside of the safe that he drowned in isn't going to do anything unless we can help him through it."

"Then what do you propose we do, Dr. Gilbert?" Caroline asked, crossing her arms.

I clasp my hands together, bringing them to the bridge of my nose. It's a bad habit that I picked up from my dad, who would always do this whenever he was trying to work something out, whether it be something regarding a patient, or just trying to repaint a room in our house.

I don't have my memories, but my diaries are the second best thing. What is the one thing that they have repeatedly said about Stefan? "Stefan...is his own worst enemy," I started, and Katherine and Caroline waited for me to go on. "He's the sav_er_, he doesn't need sav_ing_. He's Mystic Falls's hero. Who do you call in to save the superhero?" I asked the last part to myself, beginning to pace. What else has Stefan done?

I know that Stefan had this period in his life where he was a ripper, meaning that he just drank human blood like crazy and couldn't stop himself. I also know that his best friend, Lexi, always helped him get out of whatever messes he gets himself into. Or, at least she _did_. She died on Stefan's birthday a couple years ago.

"Stefan...can't come through for himself," I said. "When he was on his ripper binge, he couldn't control himself, right?" I asked, and Caroline and Katherine nodded. "Well, when Elena turned off her humanity, who was there to help her turn it back on and deal with her feelings?"

"Stefan," Caroline answered.

I smiled. "Right. That means that he comes through for everyone else." An idea forms in my head, and it's a crazy one. "I think I know who to call to save this superhero."

* * *

Caroline very nearly killed me when I told her my idea. It took a while, but I managed to convince her that my idea was a good one, and that if I needed help I'd just scream. But I have magic, I can take care of myself.

So Caroline opened up the safe that Stefan was in, and I crawled in right next to him. He was unconscious, so my best guess was that he started having a panic attack and passed out. At least I was able to slip in undetected.

Beside me, Stefan started stirring, and I braced myself for his reaction. "Hey there, Stranger," I said casually, turning on my side so that Stefan had more room. "Please don't be mad at me."

He looks all around him, realizing that he was still in the safe. I caught sight of his eyes, and he looked slightly disoriented.

"I clearly don't remember, but remember how you used to tell me all of my ideas were bad ones, and I'd tell you to back off and that my ideas _aren't_ bad?" I asked him. "This idea isn't a bad one. I got in here when you were knocked out, and then Caroline locked us in. It was the only way. Oh, and don't blame Caroline."

I guess he finally notices that a fragile (sort of) human (again, sort of) was lying down next to him, and he started frantically hitting the roof of the safe. "Let me out of here! Caroline!"

"I know it's a little extreme, but the baby steps approach wasn't working!" Caroline's muffled voice called out.

"Stefan, just breathe," I coached. "I need you not to get mad at me and stay calm. Because when you get mad, you get anxious and violent and you rip people's heads off, which is why I'm slightly worried. But don't worry, we're gonna get through this."

Stefan completely ignores me, banging on the safe again. "Caroline, get me out of here before I hurt her!"

"You seem to be missing the point," I said casually, as if my life wasn't hanging in the balance. "Stefan, by me being in here, I'm helping you get over your PTSD triggers, because if you don't you'll kill me. And you're _Stefan_, you don't like to kill."

Stefan's breathing heavily now, even more than before. "You're risking your life," He gasped.

I shrug slightly. "How many times have you risked your life for me, Stefan? I can't even count! Besides, the whole point of me being here was for you to protect me from the Travelers, even _if_ they're not even a threat to me. Let me help you for once."

His breathing was getting worse. "I can't be in here. Please," He begged.

"Remember how I said that I couldn't go back to Whitmore, not just yet?" I asked him, laying down on my back. "Well, if we can get through this, I'll go back, which is what you want. You want me to be a happy college girl."

"No, no, no," Stefan muttered anxiously.

Sarcasm is the only thing keeping me calm right now. "Really? When did your views change?"

Caroline's slap happy voice called out, "How's it going in there?"

"Just great!" I shouted back. "I'm coming back to Whitmore!"

Stefan's breathing is getting worse. "I feel- I feel- I feel like I'm dying."

"Doesn't everybody?" I ask him. "Because technically, humans are dying every day of their lives as they grow old."

Stefan doesn't answer, just hits the safe again as he groans.

"You know, I've been thinking," I started. "This doppelganger prophecy that's been going around? Do you think there's any truth to it?"

No answer again, so I just keep going.

"You were in love with Katherine, she's Amara's doppelganger," I said, a little pitifully. "You were in love with Elena, she's Amara's doppelganger too. And you know what?" I leaned over a little, even though I'm dangerously close to getting hit by Stefan's arms thrashing about. "I think Katherine's still in love with you. She's always been in love with you. The only thing? You're still in love with Elena." I looked him up and down, laying my head in my arms. "Do you think that one day, you could love somebody else? Even though destiny is telling you otherwise? Because I think you're ready. I mean, look at Damon and Elena. They're trying to fight destiny." I cautiously lift my hand to touch his shoulder. "What you're going through right now is hardly destiny, Stefan. It's a distraction. You're trying to distract yourself from the pain of Elena choosing your brother over you. You can beat this."

And just like last night, Stefan's hands went right around my neck, choking me hard. "I'm going to kill you," He growled.

I nodded slightly. "Channeling...anger. That's good too," I gasped. "I get that...you don't want to talk, Stefan. But you...can't avoid this...forever. So stop being such...a coward, and face...your...problems."

His grip tightened on my throat. "Any reason why you chose to have this conversation with me locked in a safe?"

"Because I'm noticing what you're failing to!" I growled. "This stupid..._safe_, is _not_ your problem!"

"How could you say that to me?" He asked.

"Because the Stefan Salvatore that I know is not a coward," I choked. I was starting to get light headed, but that's not going to stop me. "You're not facing the real problem, here. The pain of being locked in this safe, dying over and over again for three months? It's easier for you to think about the physical pain rather than the emotional pain of Elena picking Damon over you, and how the two of them weren't the ones that found you when you got out of the safe." I swallowed my fears. "You know what your problem is? You lose touch with reality. You lose it when you think about what happened, when you slip into a panic attack, even right how." And now it's time for Juliet's stupid move for the day, though I'm pretty sure that I already used my stupid move for the day already. "Let's bring you back to the present." I tilt my head so that my neck is exposed to Stefan, the veins in my throat popping up. "In this moment, you've got two options. Are you going to feed on me or are you gonna save my life?"

Stefan's face is dangerously close to my neck, but I'm confident enough that Stefan is going to restrain himself. I believe in him.

I tilted my head slightly so that I could look at Stefan, who was slowly withdrawing from me. The veins from under his eyes disappear as his hold on my loosens, though he doesn't take his hands away.

I fix my head so that I was looking right at him. He was looking down, trying to control himself. "I'm sorry, Stefan," I tell him. "I am so sorry that I let Silas push you into this safe, and into that quarry. I should have known that Silas was going to pull something. I am sorry that I couldn't understand what you were going through personally, but I'm doing the best I can. I want to help you, Stefan." I gently put my hands on his cheeks, lifting his head up so that he was looking at me, right into my eyes. "You have to let me help you."

I could still see the pain in his eyes, so I softly stroked his cheeks as I said, "You can fight this, Stefan. This isn't you. I am right here," I assured him. "I am here with you. You are not under water. You are not drowning. I know that because I need air to breathe. If I was under water, I'd be dying, and not talking." He was still struggling with it. Time to try a different tactic. "Can you hear my heart beat, Stefan?"

A noise from him, and I think that it's a yes. "Listen to it. Count them." I wait a second. "That's the sound of your best friend's heart beat. The sound that tells you that there is a living, breathing person that cares about what you are going through and wants to help you."

I think it's working. Stefan's started calming down. I don't take my hands off of his face, though. I feel like they're glued to his cheeks. "What's your nickname for me?" I asked him.

This time he doesn't hesitate as he answers, "Capulet."

Without either of us noticing, our faces start leaning towards the other person's. I'm not even sure when it started happening, but all I knew was that it was too late to pull back now. My heart hammered against my chest as our noses gently touched. Was this really happening?

Stefan closes his eyes, and mine flutter shut as we very nearly close the gap between us. Unfortunately, the sound of the safe opening jolts us apart, and we both separate. It was like he was glued to the right wall of the safe, and I was glued to the left wall.

"It was so quiet, I got worried!" Caroline expressed.

In this moment, I wanted nothing more than to stake my best friend right in the heart.

Stefan stands up, getting out of the safe. He awkwardly holds out a hand to help me out, and I take it without meeting his eyes, pulling myself out. I quickly let go of his hand, though I swear he kept his on for a second longer.

I couldn't help but let my gaze wander anywhere but Stefan's face as I knew that he was giving me a weird sort of look. I brushed it off as I went back over to the couch where Katherine was sulking, picking up my spell book as I did so. I pulled it open as I heard Caroline say to Stefan, "You made it out alive!"

Not being able to stop myself, I look over at Stefan, who wasn't fully responding to Caroline's hug, his gaze focused entirely on me. I felt my face grow hot as I looked back down at the spell book. Great! I finally got what I had always wanted (a near kiss from Stefan) and I chicken out!

I am the most confusing girl ever!

All I know is that something between Stefan and I has changed. And I really liked it.

* * *

I needed to talk to Stefan. I don't want things awkward between us. Even if things didn't work out the way I wanted them to between us, I didn't want to lose Stefan as a friend. He is a very important person in my life.

So that's what led me to taking two shots of Bourbon to gain enough courage to go over to the room where Stefan was. It was where he had broken the chair during one of his 'spells' earlier today.

He's cleaning the place up when I walk in, my hands balled into a fist to keep them from shaking.

"You know, for the record, I, uh, I only broke one of these," He smiled, holding up the leg of the chair.

I shrug slightly. "It was a pretty ugly chair. You're probably better off without this chair in your life."

"I thought you liked these chairs," Stefan stated.

I avoided Stefan's gaze as I reached down to pick up another leg of the chair. "Oh, I do. I'm just saying that to try and make you feel better."

That riles a laugh out of Stefan, and a smile out of me. "So he can laugh!" I joked. "I honestly thought I'd never hear that again, especially since I didn't remember how nice it sounded."

Stefan nods, before going a bit more serious. "So I guess you were right all along. It was easier for me to focus on my physical pain than the break-up. I need to move on."

"I am the one in the psychology class, Stefan," I reminded him. "Do you really not trust me when it comes to my studies?"

"Yes, I doubted you, and I apologize for that," He joked. "So, earlier today, do you remember when you apologized to me?"

You mean when my hands were caressing your cheeks? My face flushed slightly as I nodded. "Yeah."

"You shouldn't have," Stefan told me. "I'm the vampire, I'm the one with the super hearing, I should have heard Silas coming."

"You couldn't have," I assured him. "I should have done something other than just stand there."

Without thinking, Stefan put his hands on my arms, bringing me slightly closer to him. "You did everything right, Juliet. There wasn't anything else for you to do to help me."

"I guess the truth is that Silas is just a big jerk," I said with a slight laugh.

"Is what you said true?" He asked me, bringing me slightly closer to him. "Do you really think that I'm ready to move on?"

My heart felt like it was going to jump right out of my chest. I swallowed the lump in my throat as I put my hands where Stefan's are on my arms. "I can't decide that for you, Stefan. Only you can." Our faces inched closer towards each other. My hands went from his hands to run along his arms until they found their way to his chest. "If you think that you're ready to move on..." I trailed off as Stefan pulled me closer to him, and our faces were just inches apart. I fought against my blush as our noses touched. "...Then you're ready to move on."

Our lips gently brush against each others, and the taste of Stefan's lips is enough to send me reeling, and I haven't even kissed him yet!

I swallow back any doubts that I had before, and lean forward slightly to finally close the gap between us.

"JJ!" I heard my name, and Stefan and I jumped apart. I went and stood on Stefan's left as Katherine comes into view.

If she wants to die, I will gladly be the one to kill her at this point.

She looked casual, but I had a feeling that she knew that she was interrupting something between Stefan and I. Katherine pointed behind her. "Caroline needs yours and Stefan's help to get the safe out of the house."

Stefan and I exchange nervous glances, before nodding at Katherine. Stefan walks ahead of me, and I couldn't fight the smile on my face as the thought of my near-kiss with Stefan crossed my mind. My heart was still beating irregularly, and my fingers went up to my lips, tracing the spots where Stefan's lips had very briefly touched mine.

I looked back up, and accidentally caught Katherine's gaze. And she was glaring daggers at me. The look on her face quickly disappears when I look up at her, and she turns around to walk back down the stairs. I was right. Katherine was still in love with Stefan.

But I'll be damned if I'm going to let another Petrova doppelganger get in the way of me finally being happy with the man that I am in love with.

And that man might even like me back.

Well, that's what I got from his almost kiss.

* * *

**TBC...**

***hides from behind fifty shields***

**I AM COMPLETELY SORRY THAT STEFAN AND JULES DIDN'T KISS IN THIS CHAPTER!**

**You didn't think that they'd get together that quickly, did you? Oh no, unfortunately, this couple still have a lot of obstacles to conquer.**

**But do not give up hope!**

**REVIEW! FOLLOW! FAVOURITE! THANKS! STAY TUNED!**


	10. Fifty Shades Of Grayson

**Disclaimer: **I don't own the Vampire Diaries! I just own my OC, Juilet Jordan Gilbert, and any other characters I make up along the way!

**Author's Note: **Just to clear up some confusion, Katherine and Stefan didn't sleep together. I use transcripts sometimes when I'm writing and I guess I forgot to take that part out. But now it's out, so don't worry about it.

ALSO, NINE FOLLOWERS AWAY FROM 100! YOU'RE ALL TOO FABULOUS FOR WORDS! ALSO YOU MAKE ME CRY.

* * *

**Enjoy!**

"Juliet, wake up!" I heard, and someone was shaking my arm.

I swat at them. "Matty, five more minutes!"

"What? Jules, get up!"

"You know that I only want two pancakes! I only ever want two pancakes!" I grumbled, not looking over.

Matt's fingers open up my right eye lid, and I see that it's Damon trying to wake me up, not Matt.

"Damon?" I asked, rolling over so that I could sit up. "What are you doing in my room? How did you even get in here?" I asked, pushing my hair away from my face.

He pointed at my window. "I climbed in through your window."

"What are you doing here?" I gaze fell on his blood stained clothes. "Oh God, are you okay?"

"Forget about me," He brushed aside. "Have you seen Elena?"

"Not since she went back to Whitmore," I answered. "Why?"

"Because I can't find her anywhere," He responded, leaning away from me. "I have no idea where she is."

"Wait, what do you mean, you can't find her?" I asked, scrambling out of bed. "What is going on?"

Damon moved for the window, and jumped right out. "Damon! Damon, wait!" I called out. I stuck my head out the open window. "Damon, hold up! Damon!"

I growled when I realized that he was already gone. Grumbling, I switched out my pajamas for a white shirt and black skirt before running out the door after Damon. I borrow Matt's truck to drive down to the Salvatore house.

"Damon!" I shouted as I pushed the front door of the Salvatore house open. "Damon! What the hell?"

I stormed upstairs, and found Damon in Stefan's room. I banged the door open. "You cannot just drop the news that my sister is missing and then just leave!"

"Sorry about that," Damon said quickly.

My heart stopped when I saw Stefan in the room. My face heated up as I remembered our almost kiss from the night before. Our _two_, almost kisses, actually.

Stefan must feel the same way, because he's avoiding my gaze. I guess Damon either didn't notice or didn't care enough because he was too worried about Elena, and keeps going. "She's not picking up her phone, she's not in her dorm, she's nowhere in this house, which leads me to believe that Dr. Creepy Ken-doll has her somewhere."

"Doctor Maxfield?" I questioned.

"Yeah, the one that operated on vampires during business hours, yeah, that one," Damon said, and my jaw dropped.

"What?" I asked. "Wes does what?" I _kissed_ someone that operates on vampires?

"Later, Jules," Damon told me. He grabbed Stefan's jacket and tossed it to his brother. "Put your hero hair on, Stefan. Let's go get Elena," He said, and turned around to walk out the door.

"You told me that you didn't know where she was," I accused.

Damon spun on his heel. "I don't, which means we're gonna have to find us some leverage. So come on."

* * *

"Is this really necessary?" I asked the brothers as we walked inside the cafe on the Whitmore campus. Damon told me that this kid named Aaron that Elena had befriended was actually Aaron _Whitmore_, the heir to the Whitmore fortune. Technically, the kid is rich.

Now I see why Elena befriended him.

Either way, I didn't want to threaten or do any harm to this kid, as he didn't do anything wrong to _me_. I also didn't want to go through with Damon's plan.

"Just go over there!" Damon urged.

I groaned as I flipped my hair over, ruffling it around. I flipped my hair back up, so now it looked all frazzled and crazy. Then, I pulled the top of my shirt down so that it exposed my chest a little bit. I gave Damon and Stefan one final look, as if I was asking them if I looked all right.

"What are you doing?" Stefan asked, trying to keep his gaze above my chest.

"We're going to try things my way first," I said, grabbing my textbook and notebook out of my bag before walking over to where Aaron was sitting. As I got closer to him, I recognized him to be a guy in my sociology class. I 'tripped' on my feet, and my textbook and notebook sprawl all over Aaron's lap.

"I'm so sorry!" I gushed as I picked up the stray papers from the ground, and Aaron reached down to help me.

"It's okay," He said, grabbing my textbook and handing it back to me.

I flirtatiously smile. "Thanks!" I pretend to study his face. "Hey, you're Aaron, right?"

"Yeah," He said, sitting back down. I took this as an opportunity to sit down next to him. I sit quite close, and cross my legs.

"You're in my sociology class, aren't you?" I asked. "Dr. Connor's class?"

"Yeah," He said again, before going back to his textbook.

Going to have to try something else. "Do you know a girl named Elena Gilbert?"

Aaron diverts his eyes from me as he plays with his pen. "Yeah. We're friends. Well, we _used_ to be."

"What happened?" I asked, feigning interest.

He shrugged. "She's just not the person that I thought she was."

I turn my body so that I was facing Aaron. "Well, I'm her sister. I haven't seen her around since yesterday and I was wondering if you had seen her."

Aaron very clearly got uncomfortable as he sticks his earphones back in his ears as he opened his notebook. "Sorry, no."

Without warning, Damon plops down next to Aaron. "Pop quiz," He starts, and Aaron looks around him, a scared expression on his face. He turns to me, and I just lightly shrug. Hey, we tried doing it my way. Now it was Damon and Stefan's way. "So your girlfriend's taken by a mad scientist. Now, do you: A, get a new girlfriend; B, call the police; or C, kill someone close to the mad scientist?"

Stupidly, Aaron tries to make a run for it. Damon doesn't make a move to run, and I learn why when I hear Stefan's voice. I turn my head in his direction to see him standing directly in front of Aaron. He smiled sarcastically as he said, "Sit," And Damon pats the space beside him.

Aaron sat back down as he says, "I have no idea where Wes took her."

"Well, they're not at his lab, so where else could he hide a vampire?" Stefan asks.

Aaron turned his head in Stefan's direction, looking very confused. He's clearly met Damon before, but he hasn't met Stefan yet. "I'm sorry. Am I supposed to know who you are?"

"That's my brother Stefan," Damon supplied.

Aaron suddenly blurts, "How are you not dead? I shot you."

"Wait," I said, putting a hand up. "He shot you?" I asked Damon.

"You really _do _miss a lot, don't you Juliet?" Damon asked me. I shrug as he answered what Aaron said, "Well, because you went for the head. You got to go for the heart." He smacks the back of Aaron's head, as if he was scolding him. "Go for the heart next time. Now, where's Elena?"

"I have no idea," Aaron continued. "All that Wes told me was to go about my life as usual."

"We're gonna call Wes, and you're gonna tell him that if he doesn't give us Elena the next experiment that he conducts it's gonna be sewing your arms back on," Damon threatened.

"We don't have to go that far, Damon," I quickly stepped in.

"Yes, we do, Juliet," He retorted.

"No, we don't, Damon," I argued as Aaron called up Wes.

"Do you have Elena?" Aaron talked into the phone. "Uh, Stefan and Damon Salvatore are going to kill me unless you give them Elena." Aaron paused as he listened to Wes's end. I was kind of pissed that I didn't have vampire hearing like Damon and Stefan did, so I had to rely on Aaron's side of the conversation to find out what was happening. As he talked to Wes, I could feel Stefan's gaze on me. I purposefully avoided it, because I knew that if I caught sight of him, I'd jump his bones right here and now, and that is the last thing that we need right now.

"Or he's in front of me imagining what my kidney would taste like," Aaron told Wes. Wes said something, and Aaron hangs up. Then he explains that Wes told him to go into his classroom, where he would give us Elena and we would give him Aaron.

Aaron led us outside, and Stefan spoke up as we walked along the campus. "You want to give me a little back story as to how you know one another?"

"Aaron is Aaron Whitmore, and he comes from a very long line of vampire-probing, blood-testing, organ-removing _freaks _called Augustine," Damon told us.

"Hang on," I interrupted. "You know this, how?"

"Because I was their test subject in the '50s," Damon answered with a shrug.

"What do you mean, 'test subject'?" Stefan further inquired.

"Meaning, I donated my body to science except I was alive and it was against my will," Damon said with a noncommittal shrug.

"Wait. Hold on a minute." Stefan stopped in his tracks, prompting all of us to stop walking. "How do I not know about this?"

Damon scoffed. "Don't get all guilt-ridden, Stefan, on me. We were on the outs back then, and by the time it was over, you know, it was over." Damon urged us all on.

"Why don't you finish the rest of the story, Damon?" Aaron demanded, but he was stopped by Stefan.

"I don't recall saying that you could talk," Stefan snapped to Aaron. He turned his head to me, which is probably the first time I've properly looked at him today. My eyes immediately landed on his lips, but I forced them to travel back up to his eyes. "Did I say that he could talk?"

I shrugged slightly. "Not that I recall."

"I don't remember anything," Damon threw in.

"I didn't think so," Stefan confirmed, and we all started walking again. I could feel Stefan's gaze on me every so often, and I had to fight the urge to hold his hand. I even went as far as crossing my arms.

We finally make out way to the science building, and walked down the familiar hallway to Wes's classroom.

"Which one is it?" Damon asks.

"It's right here," Aaron answers as we walk inside the classroom. It looked empty, but apparently it wasn't. There was a guy with his hair slicked back sitting in a chair in the back.

"21051," The man said in a crisp British accent.

I saw the colour drain from Damon's face as he said in disbelief, "_Enzo_?"

This Enzo guy stands up, his eyes still firmly locked on Damon. "It's been a while, mate."

The tension between the two of them was so thick that I could probably cut through it with a knife. Enzo walked down from where he was sitting to the front of the room where we were. Damon obviously sensed that Enzo was danger, because he pushed me behind him and towards Stefan.

"Who the hell are you?" Stefan asked.

"Lorenzo, but my friends call me Enzo," Enzo said. "Ah. Kidding. I don't have any friends." Enzo offers Stefan his hand, but Stefan doesn't shake it. He offers it to me, but I don't take it either. To be honest, his hair was kind of weirding me out. Go easy on the gel, next time.

"Enzo's another Augustine vampire. Our cells were next to each other," Damon said to Aaron, Stefan and I. To Enzo, he said, "So we're here to meet somebody - Wes Maxfield. You know him?"

Enzo scoffs. "That's your first question for me? Not 'How are you? How'd you survive in that fire I left you to die in?'" He mocked.

My jaw dropped. Why do I miss all the important stuff?

Stefan and I exchanged confused glances, so obviously he didn't know about this either. "You what?"

"Uh, does somebody want to tell me what the hell is going on here?" Aaron asked, just as confused as Stefan and I were.

"I'd love to," Enzo smirked. "Have a seat. Been waiting 70 years to tell my story." He gestured for us to sit on the chairs in the classroom as he walked over to the teacher's desk. I looked over at Stefan, who was giving me a questioning look. I lifted a shoulder before walking over to the classroom chairs, sitting down on one closest to Enzo. Hey, if he was going to tell a long, boring story, I might as well be in the position to fall asleep.

"Whatever," Stefan grumbled, and asked Aaron for his phone. Aaron gave it to him, and he walked out of the classroom.

"Damon and I had been locked in those cells for years, tortured, beaten, humiliated, but we weren't gonna let them break us, no," Enzo said. "We decided if were going to escape, we needed to work _together_," He continued, putting sarcastic emphasis on the word "together". "We needed each other."

Stefan comes back into the classroom, interrupting Enzo. "He's not sending her."

"What?" I blurted, stepping up and out of the chair, walking over to Stefan.

"Tragic," Enzo commented. "Can I continue my story now, please?"

Damon ignores Enzo as he asks Stefan, "Doesn't he know we have Aaron?"

"He doesn't care," Stefan answered. "He's willing to risk it."

Ooh, that's cold.

"What?" Aaron asked in disbelief. "Let me to talk to him! He'll listen to me."

"What part of 'he doesn't care' are you not registering?" Damon snaps.

Suddenly, there's a sound of a grunt and a chair is ripped out of the ground. We all watched as Enzo threw the chair out of the window, gaining out attention. Satisfied, Enzo said, "Where were we? Uh, ah, right. I was telling my story, and you were all politely listening. Huh?" He walked back over to the front of the classroom as Stefan's fingers wrap around my arm, jerking me behind him. My heart warms in appreciation.

"So I'd given Damon all of my blood ration so he'd have the strength to escape and save me in the process," Enzo continued. "Our plan began perfectly, didn't it? I was waiting in the cage for him to release me, waiting for my friend, my cellmate, the only soul with whom I'd connected with in all those years of captivity. Then a fire starts, burns out of control, but Damon just can't get the damn cage open. He looks me in the eye as if he doesn't even recognize me, turns around, saves himself, leaving me to die."

"Well, you didn't die," Stefan commented.

I lifted my arms up, gesturing to Enzo. "Obviously."

"No. Unfortunately I lived," Enzo grumbled. "I was spared by one of the scientists so I could spend another 50 years on a table being opened and closed." He was quiet for a second before he spoke up again. "Now that we've all been acquainted, I'm gonna find something to wet my whistle." He gets up, leaving the classroom.

Stefan immediately bombared Damon. "You didn't tell me about him."

"It was the 1950s. I'm supposed to remember every moment of my life?" Damon told Stefan, before changing the subject. "Do you want to kill Aaron, or should I?"

Stefan wouldn't let him, though. "This guy was your cellmate for 5 years, you left him to die, he comes back, and you're completely unfazed?"

Damon ignores what Stefan said, and walked towards Aaron. "Fine. I will."

I immediately stood in front of Aaron. "Hold up!"

"What?" Damon asked in an exasperated tone.

"We can't just _kill _him!" I protested. "What if he still has any information?" I whipped around so that I was facing Aaron. "Do you?"

He starts speaking really fast. "Wes gave me a bunch of files on my family history. They're in my dorm. Maybe there's something in there you need, a name, I mean, another lab."

"That's a timely revelation," Damon commented.

"Yeah. Well, you know, he's not gonna help me, why should I help him?" Aaron asked us.

Damon pushed me out of the way, and I gritted my teeth as he did so. But I stood down. He started walking towards Aaron, and with every step Damon took towards him, Aaron took one back. "I don't like you, I don't like your family, I don't like you messing up my relationship. If you're lying, I'm gonna take my thumbs, and I'm gonna gouge out your sad little eyes out of your sad little head!

Enzo walks in, two bottles of alcohol in his hands. "Ah. It's frightening what you can find on campus these days."

"Knock yourself out," Stefan told him before gesturing to all of us. "We're going with plan 'b.'"

"Damon's not," Enzo declared, pouring himself a drink. "Damon's staying right here. He knows all my secrets, so he knows how ornery I can get when I don't get my way."

Damon sighed before turning to Stefan and I . {"Call me if you find anything, kill him if you don't."

Stefan and I look to each other (miraculously, I don't blush) and then he turns to Aaron. "Let's go."

* * *

It was a quiet walk to Aaron Whitmore's dorm room, but when we got there, Aaron said, "All the files of my family history are in here." And he looked under his bed.

I tapped my foot anxiously. "Come on. My sister doesn't have all day." For some reason, the whole idea of vampires being cut up by Wes made me a) want to throw up at the thought of me even being _attracted_ to him, let alone kiss him and b) want to rip Wes apart at the thought of what he could possibly be doing to Elena.

Quietly, Stefan grabs my arm and pushes me to the other side of the room, before he dashes at Aaron and grabs his throat. I was about to yell at Stefan, but then I saw Aaron dropping a gun, and was suddenly glad that he had done that. "Is this all a lie, huh?" Stefan growled. "If you want me to kill you, I will kill you. Do not test me."

"Do it," Aaron choked out. "I'm dead already. Damon's been planning my death since before I was born."

What the hell?

"Stefan, let him go," I told him. "Aaron, what on earth are you talking about?"

"Damon left out the best part of the Augustine story, the part after he escaped," He gasped.

I made my way over to Stefan, and gently touched his shoulder. After looking at me for a few seconds, he looks back to Aaron before letting go of his neck. Aaron starts coughing, trying to regain his breathing.

"Talk," Stefan demanded.

Aaron took a deep breath before he started. "It wasn't enough for Damon to kill the doctors who tortured him. He had to torture their families and their future families. He spent the last 60 years killing every one of my relatives," Aaron revealed, and my face contorted into one of disbelief as he kept going. "Except he's a psychopath. He leaves one alive so that they can continue the family line so that he can destroy future generations of innocent people. So go ahead and do it, kill me because I don't want to give Damon the satisfaction, so do it," Aaron closes his eyes, waiting for his death. "Do it!"

I looked over at Stefan, who had no emotion on his face. Then, he said to Aaron, "You know, not all of us are like my brother."

Aaron didn't respond. Stefan just looked over at me, and I shrugged slightly. Aaron wasn't going to be of any help. I jerked my head towards the door. _Might as well leave_.

Stefan nods in agreement, and I turn to leave. But before I can move, I feel Stefan slipping his hand into my open. I look from my hand to Stefan, who let a smile grow on his face. A nervous smile covers mine, and my heart hammers as he begins to lead us out of Aaron's dorm.

We're just outside the door before Aaron's voice stops us. "Stefan?"

We turn around, and walk back inside. Aaron goes back under his bed, and this time, pulls out files and papers. "This is everything Wes gave me on Augustine. I saw Elena's and Juliet's last name on a few pages. Maybe it will help."

I give Aaron a smile as Stefan takes the files out of his hands. "Thank you, Aaron."

Stefan looks through the files, and his expression drops. He looks over to me. "I know where Elena is."

"What? Where?" I asked him, grabbing the file out of his hands.

"She's at your dad's old office. If I run I can get there," He said, but then hesitated.

"What? Go save my sister!" I urged, grabbing his hands and giving them a squeeze. He still looked unsure. I rolled my eyes. "Look, you have to go. I'll get there on my own. Save Elena, and take her back to your house. I'll meet you there." My heart about to explode, I stood on my tip toes and gave Stefan a quick peck on the cheek. It was sort of a kiss of motivation.

That's all that he needed to give me a quick kiss on the cheek, and then he ran right out of the room with his vampire speed. I handed Aaron back his files, before running out of the room after him, my hands tracing the spot that Stefan had kissed me the whole way.

* * *

One very expensive taxi ride later, I run up to the Salvatore house, barging inside. Elena is sitting on the couch, and I breathe a sigh of relief as I run over to her.

"Thank God," I breathed, leaning over her and grabbing her in a hug. I didn't realize today how much I cared about her until she was taken from me. And now I feel like a real bitch for being a bitch to her.

"Jules," Elena choked. I pulled back, and studied her face. She still looked a bit groggy, but was looking okay.

"You're okay, aren't you?" I asked her, brushing her hair back. "You're not hurt?"

"I'm fine," She assured me. "Just a little tired."

"Well, you just rest up," I said to her. "And if you need me for anything, you just have to shout." I stood up, running my hand through my hair. Now, on to different matters. "Do you know where Stefan is?" I asked her.

"Yeah, he's upstairs in his room, I think," She answered, before opening up a diary that she had in her hands.

"Thanks," I said, before turning to go upstairs. I walked past Damon, who had this sort of conflicted look on his face. Shaking it off, I went up the stairs. I've been mentally preparing myself to face Stefan since I got into the taxi. I made my way into Stefan's room, where he was fiddling with something on his dresser.

I tapped lightly on his door, and he turned to face me. His previous normal expression was quickly masked by an expressionless one. "Hey," He said.

"Hi," I replied, walking into his room.

The air was tight before I spoke up again. "So, we clearly have a few things to talk about."

"Yeah, I guess we do," He said, shifting his weight.

I don't like this. Stefan and I have never felt uncomfortable around each other, at least not like this. The air around us was no longer the playful, happy go lucky sense that it usually was. It was a make it or break it sort of sense.

And that kind of scared me.

"Do you wanna sit down?" Stefan asked, gesturing to the bed he had in his room.

I crossed my arms. "I'd rather stand, if you don't mind." I rocked back and forth on my heels. "So..." I drawled.

"So," Stefan said in the same tone.

I huffed. Might as well just spit it out. "Are we going to talk about how we almost kissed?"

Stefan chuckled. "Always one to get to the point, aren't you, Jules?"

I lift a shoulder. "Well, yeah. I don't know what our almost kisses meant to you. It could have been heat of the moment, it could have been a long time coming." Am I really going to do this? "All I know is that I have feelings for you, Stefan Salvatore. I've had feelings for you for the longest time."

Turns out I was.

Stefan just stood in silence as I continued to rant. "I don't know what the near kisses meant to you. It could have meant nothing. But they meant something to me. A lot, actually. And I don't know how we're supposed to move on from here since we are best friends and we almost kissed-_twice_-but you are still my best friend, Stefan. And a person that's very important to me and I don't want to lose you."

I took a deep breath after my rant. But Stefan just stood there, still not saying anything. I made a noise of exasperation as I put my hands on my hips. "Well? Don't _you_ have anything to say?"

Stefan just studied his hands for a second while I impatiently tapped my foot. And before I knew it, he was taking three large strides towards me. Before I could ask what he was doing, he gently cupped my face, and pressed his lips to mine.

I was so surprised that I actually almost pulled away from his kiss. His lips were sweeter than I could ever imagine, and I began moving my lips against his with a deep urgency.

He responded enthusiastically, letting his hands get tangled up in my hair. I run my hands up his arms before grabbing his face, deepening our kiss.

It was...even better than I could have ever imagine. If you had told me a few months ago that I would be kissing Stefan Salvatore, I would have a) ask who Stefan Salvatore actually _was_ and then b) call you crazy.

But here we were, making out in his bedroom. My hands had moved from his cheeks and I wrapped my arms around his neck, and he had moved his hands to the small of my back, bringing me closer to him.

After what feels like forever (but was probably only a couple of minutes) Stefan brought his hands back to my face before gently pulling away. The look on my face must have been complete awe, because Stefan smiled before pressing another quick kiss to my lips.

"What the hell was that?" I asked, very out of breath. How long were we kissing?

Stefan traced the line of my cheekbones as he said. "I don't know. All I know is that I want this." He lifts his shoulders. "You were right. I _am_ ready to move on. And right now, I'm not sure about how I feel about you. Yesterday you were my best friend, but something has definitely changed. I don't know if these feelings are new or if they've been a long time coming." He leaned in slightly, touching his forehead to mine. He closed his eyes, but I kept mine open, not wanting to miss any second of this. "All I know is that I want this right now." He opened his eyes again. "I want _you_, Capulet."

I couldn't help the few tears that escaped me. Hey, I've waited a long time to hear those words, okay? Stefan wiped them away before kissing the spots where they were as I said, "I don't know what to say. I really don't."

Aren't I perfect?

Stefan's lips make their way to my ear, his warm breath tickling my skin and sending me into hyperdrive. "You don't have to say anything."

My heart beat picked up double time as he placed his lips firmly back on mine. I had to keep myself from squealing with delight, so instead, I wrapped my arms back around his neck, standing on my tip toes as I tried to cover as much of his mouth with my own as I could.

Just to make this moment a little more romantic, I did the thing that Anne Hathaway did when she was in the Princess Diaries. I slowly brought my left leg up, 'popping' it. I smiled into the kiss at my own little joke.

Suddenly, Stefan pulled back, but didn't move his arms from my waist. He turned his head this way and that.

"What's wrong?" I asked, catching my breath. Though I am slightly (okay more than slightly) disappointed that our kissing session had been interrupted.

"Did you hear that?" He asked, turning to face me. He finally let go of my waist, so I was forced to let go of his neck.

"What?" I asked, crossing my arms. Whatever it was, it was dead.

"It sounded like a thud," He answered. "From downstairs."

"But it's just Damon and Elena downstairs," I told him.

He shook his head. "I heard Elena and Damon both leave the house."

"Who else would be here?" I asked.

"Well, Katherine was here earlier," He remarked, gently pushing me aside as he made his way down the stairs.

Then Katherine is the one who I am killing.

Trying not to grumble, I followed him, but he was down the stairs before me. And then he shouted up the stairs, "Juliet! Call 911!"

"Why?" I questioned, speeding down the stairs. I got my answer as I saw Katherine lying down at the foot of the stairs, seemingly unresponsive. Stefan was applying CPR as he urgently pressed me to call 911.

Stepping over Katherine, I ran over and grabbed the house phone before calling in and saying that we needed an ambulance. I hung up, before going back over to Stefan. I knelt down next to him as he kept doing compressions. "What happened?"

"I think she had a heart attack," He replied.

Oh yeah. Just leave it to Katherine to ruin my moment.

* * *

**TBC...**

** SO WE FINALLY GOT THE JEFAN KISS! WHO ELSE CHEERED?**

**But don't expect things to go **_**too**_** smoothly. There's something coming up in the next couple of chapters that is going to make a real mess of things.**

**I'm so sorry.**

**Also, DO YOU GUYS KNOW HOW EXCITED I AM FOR KLAUS TO COME BACK NEXT CHAPTER? WRITING HIM AND JULES IS GONNA BE SO MUCH FUN!**

**REVIEW! FOLLOW! FAVOURITE! THANKS! STAY TUNED!**


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